During the San Diego Comic-Con panel for his popular X-Men spinoff series Legion, Hawley teased that he is developing a film based on the infamous Marvel Comics villain and frequent foe of the Fantastic Four. As reported by IGN, Hawley closed out the panel by dropping the news about the movie project.
“Because I’m at Comic-Con, I wanted to let you know about a movie I’m developing for Fox,” he said. “The first word is ‘Doctor,’ and the second is ‘Doom.'”
Created by comic-book legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Victor Von Doom made his first appearance in a 1962 issue of The Fantastic Four and went on to become one of the superhero family’s most frequent adversaries, and a foe to the greater Marvel Comics universe over the years. The character appeared in both the original, two-film series of live-action Fantastic Four movies and the more recent Fantastic Four reboot, with Charmed and Nip/Tuck actor Julian McMahon portraying him in the former and Toby Kebbell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Black Mirror) in the latter.
Hawley, who created both Legion and the Fargo television series for FX, did not offer any indication whether the movie would focus on Doom alone or serve as yet another reboot of the Fantastic Four film franchise. A bestselling novelist in addition to his work on television, Hawley won one Primetime Emmy Award in 2014 for his work on Fargo and has been nominated seven times for the series. He has yet to direct a feature film, though.
Although Hawley is currently working on several big-screen projects in various stages of development, his only movie credit so far comes from writing the screenplay for the 2006 romantic comedy Lies and Alibis (originally titled The Alibi).
Legion premiered on FX in February and went on to receive critical praise for its fresh approach to the superhero genre and unique visual style. FX ordered a second season of 10 episodes just a month later — only a few episodes into the first season — and season 2 of Legion is expected to premiere in February 2018.
