When Disney bought out Fox and reincorporated the X-Men and the Fantastic Four properties back into Marvel Studios, fans worldwide sighed a heavy sense of relief. While a few of the X-Men related films have been at least half way decent, the Fantastic Four have had an absolutely horrible go at it on the big screen. The first Fantastic Four in 2005 was just stale, and its sequel din’t really do much better. And lets not even talk about the Josh Trank disaster. One of the biggest downfalls for all three of these films has been the bastardization of one of Marvel’s greatest villains; Dr. Doom. Now, concept art from the 2005 film has surfaced, and it reveals that we were almost given a Nicolas Cage Doctor Doom!
Ryan Unicomb shared some concept art from the studio’s first take on Doom. The face was inspired by Marilyn Manson, which in turn inspired the studio to start going after Cage. While nothing against Julian McMahon, his performance and his aesthetic just fell flat. Cage would have brought his signature manic crazy to the role, offering a whole new version of the character. Would it have been good? Who knows, but it certainly would have been interesting and memorable, good or bad. Plus, the almost modern ‘Frankenstein’s monster’ style to the character design really pushed the PG-13 boundary and would have made the villain genuinely terrifying on screen.
According to @itsRyanUnicomb on Instagram, Nicolas Cage was originally cast in a darker, more visceral version of Doctor Doom for 2005’s Fantastic Four pic.twitter.com/jtW0jCK4ld
— Rattling The Cage Podcast (@rattlingcagepod) October 18, 2020
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Of course, this never came to be, but man, can you imagine Doctor Doom looking for the Declaration of Independence whilst stopping a hijacking of a convict airplane and face swapping with Mr. Fantastic? Wait, I may have mixed up a few films here… Honestly, had Nicolas Cage taken this role, Ghost Rider probably wouldn’t have happened two years later, and that was a more important role for the actor.
Would you have liked to see a Nicolas Cage Doctor Doom? Let us know in the comments below!