American radio show and television personality Howard Stern is apparently attached to star in a Doctor Doom-related project at Marvel Studios.
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Speaking on his daily radio show on SiriusXM, Stern accidentally spilled that he’s “going to do Doctor Doom” while his mic was hot during a commercial break.
“They’re going over the schedule with me, and it’s going to suck,” said Stern. “I told you, I’m going to do ‘Doctor Doom.’ That’s the thing. But believe me, I’m f–king miserable about itโฆI called Robert Downey, Jr. and I was asking him acting techniques.”
Stern’s response came after he was asked if he was going to be working “this summer,” which points to this mystery project going into production soon.
Marvel Studios is currently developing a live-action Fantastic Four reboot, and is in search of a “big name” to replace Jon Watts in the director’s chair, who dropped out of the film earlier this year. It’s unclear if this Stern casting is for that film or for a different unannounced project.
Stern’s verbiage makes it unclear whether he is attached to play Victor von Doom himself or if he’s apart of the supporting cast for an unconfirmed Doctor Doom title. The fact that he reached out to Robert Downey Jr. for advice indicates that this is a live-action role and not a vocal spot for an animated installment, such as an episode of What If…?. That, or Stern could be playing a joke on his listeners altogether, and has no plans to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe anytime soon.
Doctor Doom has yet to make his MCU debut, but his presence is already being felt. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness producer Richie Palmer recently confirmed that the portal John Krasinski’s Reed Richards uses to enter the Illuminati’s throne room is based off of Doctor Doom technology.
“The detail of the teleportation device he uses to get into the scene is something we took from the comics, that’s Doctor Doom’s Time Platform,” Palmer revealed.
Beyond that,ย Doom’s Latveria is speculated to have been a hidden in plain sight location in the premiere episode of Moon Knight, and the fictional nation has beenย rumored to play an overarching role in this fall’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
ComicBook has reached out to Disney for confirmation but has not heard back at this time.