By Not including the Roger Corman 1990s film, Australian actor Julian McMahon was the first actor to properly suit up as Doctor Doom for 2005’s “Fantastic Four”.
The “Nip/Tuck” and “FBI: Most Wanted” star went on to reprise the role for its 2007 sequel before that franchise ‘ended’. Toby Kebbell took on the role for the failed 2015 reboot, and now Robert Downey Jr. is playing the part for Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Doomsday” which is about to begin shooting.
Popping up at SXSW this week to promote the Nic Cage-led thriller “The Surfer,” McMahon spoke with Screen Rant and was asked if he had any thoughts about Downey Jr. taking on the role.
McMahon offered plenty of praise and support for Downey’s new take on the character:
“It’s Robert, you know what I mean? What are you going to say? His body of work speaks for itself. He’s a super talented guy. I love watching his work. When we did the movies years ago, we were at the [precipice] of all that stuff happening. So, we were finding our way a lot, and we were trying to figure out what space the movie itself lived in. Was it a kid’s movie? Was it a family movie? Was it more comedy-driven, or was it more trauma-driven? We were trying to find all that stuff as we were shooting.
I think now that there are so many different realms of [the] establishment of the way that you look at those pieces, you can pretty much do so many different things now. If you’ve got Robert Downey Jr, who’s one of the great creatives of the last however many years we’ve been watching him for, mixed with the elements of how we can make movies these days? I think it’s going to be pretty extraordinary.”
Ten years after playing the role, McMahon worked with Marvel again on Hulu’s “Runaways” TV series but it has been indicated that series is not a part of MCU canon.
McMahon will next be seen in the Shonda Rhimes-produced murder mystery comedy series “The Residence” launching on Netflix next week, the actor playing the Australian Prime Minister – a fitting role as his father Sir William McMahon was the Aussie PM for a brief time in the early 1970s.
“The Surfer” opens sometime later in 2025, while “Avengers: Doomsday” premieres in cinemas on May 1st 2026.
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