This article contains spoilers about The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) has officially arrived.
While the villain is set to terrorize the Marvel Cinematic Universe in next year’s Avengers: Doomsday, he made his onscreen debut in the post-credits scene of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. But since he’s only seen from behind holding out his mask, it’s unclear whether Downey Jr. has made his highly anticipated onscreen return to the MCU yet after his original character, Tony Stark/Iron Man, died in Avengers: Endgame.
When Entertainment Weekly asked Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman if Downey Jr. filmed that post-credits scene, the filmmaker pleaded the fifth. “For others to talk about,” he teased.
Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/Marvel
Joseph Quinn, Vanessa Kirby, and Pedro Pascal in ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’
However, Shakman did reveal that it was the Russo brothers who helmed the post-credits scene since it was shot for Avengers: Doomsday.
“The Russos did end up directing that [Thunderbolts*] post-credits scene, and they also did the one for this movie as well,” Shakman says, explaining, “Just because they were done during the production of Avengers: Doomsday. You’ve got all those actors there, you’ve got those sets there, it just makes sense.”
The post-credits scene picks up four years after Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) saved their world from Galactus (Ralph Ineson).
All seems calm in the Baxter Building as Sue reads a children’s book to four-year-old Franklin. When the toddler is ready for his next story, their robot helper H.E.R.B.I.E. suggests Sue read one of his favorites: Darwin’s Origin of Species. But Sue thinks he needs something lighter, so she goes to get another more age-appropriate book from another room. When she returns, she finds Doctor Doom kneeling in front of Franklin, mask in hand. It seems another powerful cosmic being has come to introduce himself to the world’s powerful mutant.
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This is all leading towards Avengers: Doomsday, but Shakman wouldn’t comment on what kind of role Franklin will play in that massive team-up movie. However, he did explain why this movie waited until the post-credits scene to introduce Doom.
“That’s one of the things that other movies have done — they’ve often used Doctor Doom,” Shakman says. “Doctor Doom is an amazing character, and he’s coming, as we all know. For us, it felt like, let’s start where you can focus on these four amazing characters — Galactus is awesome too, but he’s a giant cosmic threat, he’s unknowable — and save Doom for a little later.”
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters.
—Additional reporting by Mike Miller
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
