Four actors shortlisted to play Doctor Doom in FANTASTIC FOUR

With the whole rather silly “Michael B. Jordan is Johnny Storm” row still… er, burning up the narrow minded corners of the internets, some of the other casting for director Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four reboot has been overshadowed a bit. We know who our four heroes are going to be, but with filming starting in just a few weeks, we still don’t know who will be playing the baddie. Or at least we didn’t before now.

According to The Wrap, four young actors have allegedly been shortlisted by Trank and the rest of the suits at Fox to play Fantastic Four arch-enemy Doctor Victor Von Doom: Domhnall Gleeson (About Time, Harry Potter Series), Toby Kebbell (Wrath of the Titans, Rock’nRolla), Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables, My Week With Marilyn) and Sam Riley (On the Road, Maleficent).

If legit, this would show that Fox is keeping on the path of unconventional and possibly quite inspired casting choices. Kebbell has been in a string of major blockbusters over the years, but is yet to find his real breakout role. Similarly, Redmayne has also been around for a while, but only got his biggest exposure most recently in Les Miserables. Gleeson and Riley on the other hand are up and coming young talents that seemingly pop up on just about every “short list” lately.

Out of the lot, I’ve been most impressed with Gleeson’s past work (particularly in Richard Curtis’ fantastic time-travel romantic dramedy About Time), but I can definitely see the studio leaning towards Kebbell or Redmayne. Kebbell has the big budget experience and in the past has shown off the slick charm and dark rage necessary for Doom, while Redmayne has a ton of momentum behind him right now.

What’s very interesting about all of these choices though, is that Gleeson is Irish while the other three are English, and they all have the accents to prove it. Is Fox tweaking Doom’s origin so that he’s now from the British Isles? Also, if Gleeson got the nod, how would longtime, stubborn fans react to a red-haired Doom? Actually, that may not be a bad idea: Gingers have no soul, so that should make him a better villain (I joke, I joke!).

Whatever happens, expect some sort of official announcement very soon, as Fantastic Four is scheduled to start shooting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on March 31st. Whoever gets picked as the armor wearing, spell casting genius villain, he’ll be joined by the previously announced Miles Teller as Reed Richards aka Mr Fantastic, Kate Mara as Susan Storm aka Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch and Jamie Bell (probably using motion-capture) as Ben Grimm aka the Thing.

Last Updated: March 13, 2014