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We know next to nothing about Josh Trank's The Fantastic Four.  We know they've casted young, changed a character race (African-American Michael B. Jordan plays Johnny Storm, who is Caucasian in the comics), and strongly hinted at upending what fans expect from an adaptation of the long-running comic series.

Unsurprisingly, those changes will also extend to the film's antagonist, Doctor Doom, who is being played by Toby Kebbell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes).  We previously knew nothing about how the reboot would handle the Fantastic Four's archenemy, but Steve sat down with Kebbell for the Blu-ray/DVD release of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and learned the character's surprising new back story.  People who believe that film adaptations shouldn't stray too far from the comics: brace yourselves and hit the jump.  The Fantastic Four opens August 7, 2015.

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Image via Marvel Comics

Steve asked the innocuous question of what it was like playing Doctor Doom, and Kebbell started off with a simple answer:

TOBY KEBBELL: I'm excited to see it too, and my nerves really…The only thing I can tease you about is what I worked on most was the voice because nobody—even in the cartoons, when I was watching them I was like, "So where's he from?"  There's a mild change and I'll tell you because of our history.

And this is where it gets really interesting:

KEBBELL:  He's Victor Domashev, not Victor Von Doom in our story.  And I'm sure I'll be sent to jail for telling you that.  The Doom in ours—I'm a programmer.  Very anti-social programmer.  And on blogging sites I'm "Doom".

Yep.  His name isn't even Victor Von Doom, and I'm going to assume he's also not the ruler of the fictional Eastern European country of Latveria like the character in the comics.  However, the computer programmer aspect hints that they've kept Doom highly intelligent, and that's how you represent powerful, scientifically-minded intelligence in the modern age.

Kebbell then gave a sense of how this character fits into the overall tone of the picture:

KEBBELL:  Yeah, it was cool man.  Josh, the whole deal, the lo-fi way he did it, the ultra-real.  It was just nice to do that.  It was nice to be feeling like we had to come to terms with what was given by this incident.

Here's the video of Kebbell talking about playing Doctor Doom.  Look for the full interview soon.

 

 

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Image via Marvel Comics