MCU Theory: Avengers: Age Of Ultron Secretly Introduced Doom's Origin

A Fantastic Four movie is in development for the MCU, but the First Family's arch-nemesis Doctor Doom was already set up in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Despite being one of the most famous comic book teams in history, the Fantastic Four have a long history of failed live-action adaptations. From Josh Trank's Fant4stic trainwreck to the multiple canceled Fantastic Four movies, Reed Richards and his family just seem to be naturally averse to having a successful movie. As a result, the iconic Marvel villain Doctor Doom tends to go down with them.

The MCU will go through many drastic changes in Phase 4, with multiple Disney+ shows, alternate realities, and a new generation of heroes arriving to shake up the multiverse after the Infinity Saga. Without established heroes like Chris Evans' Captain America and Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark to guide them, those new heroes will need a group of natural-born leaders who can advise them in the art of world-saving. Thankfully for the fate of the multiverse, the Fantastic Four will soon join Doctor Strange and Thor in this task.

Despite the Fantastic Four's prolonged absence, the MCU will surely find a way to incorporate them into the narrative seamlessly. Nathaniel Richards will soon be featured in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania in the form of the time-traveling villain Kang. Therefore, other adjacent characters like Silver Surfer and Super Skrull are also more likely to arrive sooner rather than later. Of course, the most anticipated Fantastic Four character is Doctor Doom, whose rise to power could easily be explained with the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Sokovia Can Be Turned Into Latveria

Avengers Age of Ultron Sokovia as Doctor Doom's Latveria

Although Avengers: Age of Ultron sent the Avengers to various places around the world, Sokovia was still the center of the conflict against the villain Ultron. The rogue AI intended to turn the Easter European country into an artificial meteorite and annihilate the human race with it in order to populate the world with robots, which would follow Ultron's ideals without protesting. The Avengers thwarted Ultron's contrived plans, but they couldn't prevent the deaths of countless Sokovians. This crisis led Zemo to swear vengeance against the Avengers, something he executed masterfully during Captain America: Civil War.

In a world where alien invasions are a common occurrence, the Battle of Sokovia is still by far the worst catastrophe the world has seen in the MCU. Like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War demonstrated, this makes the country a hotspot for shady external influences. Given that the MCU already used Sokovia as the origin story for Zemo and the Maximoff twins, it's unlikely that Doctor Doom would also be a citizen. Instead, Doom could be a power-hungry foreigner who exploits the grief of Sokovian refugees to build Latveria on top of Sokoia's ashes. This would let Doctor Doom's ambitious personality shine and would make a powerful thematic parallel between the tyrant and the Fantastic Four if they're the ones who bought the Avengers Tower: while the superheroes are building a new future with the legacy of Ultron's creators, Doctor Doom would be building a new nefarious kingdom with Ultron's remnants.

The MCU Made Sokovia Genetically Relevant

Wolfgang von Strucker and the Maximoff Twins in Avengers Age of Ultron

Another reason why Doctor Doom would lay his eyes on Sokovia would be an asset Ultron was wise enough to take advantage of: enhanced individuals a.k.a. mutants. Before Ultron was created, HYDRA had set up a base in Sokovia in order to find candidates for their experiments with the Mind Stone, then embedded in Loki's Scepter. Wolfgang von Strucker and HYDRA succeeded in creating enhanced superhumans, but only because Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were genetically different from the rest of the candidates. The Maximoff twins had dormant mutant genes that were awakened with the power of an Infinity Stone, and other Sokovians could be hiding their untapped potential as well.

A mutant population could help Doom's discourse to become the leader of Latveria. After the X-gene wakes up in the MCU, mutants will be powerful soldiers waiting to be recruited, and a power-crazy genius like Doom would definitely want to take advantage of the epicenter of enhanced beings to build his empire. In the comics, Pietro and Wanda once enter Latveria illegally to find a lost relative, so a connection between the mutants in Sokovia and Doctor Doom's Latveria isn't a new concept by any means.

Doctor Doom Could Be Another Villain Created By Heroes

Doctor Doom With The MCU's Zemo, Mysterio, and Vulture

Villains who owe their origin to Tony Stark are an old trope by now, but the same theme continues with Kang in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and the conflict of Armor Wars, Ironheart, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Like HYDRA's "cut off one head" motto appropriately describes, every problem that superheroes in the MCU manage to fix creates another two. This could be read as the representation of the eternal fight between good and evil, but also as a way to multiply the number of villains and possible stories in the MCU.

Most importantly, Doctor Doom's connections to Ultron would symbolize the world's permanent need for superheroes, regardless of who dons the costume to fight the battle that regular humans never could. In the MCU, Doctor Doom could be the embodiment of Tony Stark's dark side, which was touched upon in Avengers: Age of Ultron: an insanely influential genius with unlimited resources who intends to shape the world according to his ideals. This way, Doctor Doom would finally stop being portrayed as a one-dimensional Fantastic Four antagonist who just fights them out of envy.

The MCU Can Fix Live-Action Doctor Doom

Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four and Fant4stic Movies and Marvel Comics

One of the worst aspects of all the failed Fantastic Four movies has been Doctor Doom. His origin story and motivations have been limited to those of the titular heroes. As the previous movies have found it necessary to focus solely on the team's perspective, their conflict always becomes a run-of-the-mill superhero adventure. But Doctor Doom is one of the most famous fictional villains in history. He's the poster boy for comic book supervillains. As such, he needs a more complex and independent narrative progression.

The interconnectivity of the MCU could help Doctor Doom's origin story break apart from the Fantastic Four. Much like Thanos, Doctor Doom's story would benefit from a long-form arc. All the elements are there to be set in motion: his motivations could be rooted in the downfall of Sokovia, his connection to Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four could go back several years (without the need for an entire Fantastic Four movie to explain them), and Ultron's discarded robots could be retrofitted to become Doctor Doom's iconic Doombots (Spider-Man: Homecoming already showed them lying around).

The castle HYDRA was using at the beginning of Avengers: Age of Ultron is the cherry on top of this theory. It could be rebuilt as the beacon of hope for the former Sokovians and as Doctor Doom's symbol of absolute power. Victor von Doom's work is practically cut out for him to become the definite live-action archnemesis of the Fantastic Four and the whole MCU.

More: Marvel's Fantastic Four Movie Would Be Better As A Disney+ Series