Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy discussed whether he would be interested in portraying Doctor Doom in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Murphy recently appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and explained that his interest in the role of Doctor Doom is entirely dependent on the quality of the story. “It’s always about the script… You never know,” the actor stated. “This business is so unpredictable and wild… You never know what’s gonna turn up.”
Ever since it was announced that the Fantastic Four would be joining the MCU, Murphy’s name has been tossed around by fans to play their biggest rival, Doctor Doom. However, it has not yet been officially announced who will be joining the cast of the highly-anticipated movie. While the film was originally planned to begin filming in early 2024, Fantastic Four was recently delayed by about three months. Depending on the outcome of the ongoing Writer’s Guild of America strike and the SAG-AFTRA strike, it is possible that the Matt Shakman-helmed film could be delayed even further.
Cillian Murphy Played an Iconic Supervillain in the Dark Knight Trilogy
Murphy is not a stranger to the superhero movie genre, having portrayed Scarecrow in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. While he ended up playing a villain, Murphy actually originally auditioned for the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. Recently, the actor admitted that he’s glad he didn’t play Batman. “I think it was for the best because we got Christian Bale’s performance, which is a stunning interpretation of that role,” Murphy said. “I never considered myself as the right physical specimen for Batman. To me, it was always going to be Christian Bale.”
In addition to the Dark Knight trilogy, Murphy has also collaborated with Nolan on Inception (2010) and Dunkirk (2017). However, the director’s most recent movie, Oppenheimer, marks the first time Murphy has stepped into a leading role for Nolan. In the film, Murphy portrays the titular physicist as he sets out to make the atomic bomb. Following the massive critical and commercial success of Oppenheimer, which also stars MCU alumni Robert Downey Jr., it is likely Murphy will have high expectations for future scripts, especially since he has revealed that the Oppenheimer script is the best he’s ever read.
Talking about Nolan’s script for the biopic, Murphy said, “So, [Nolan] wrote the script in first-person, which I’d never encountered and never experienced. It blew my mind. Also, I realized that was a huge responsibility because everything is kind of subjectively through Oppenheimer’s eyes, except for the black and white bits which are objectively from [Lewis] Strauss’ point of view. It was one of the best screenplays I’ve ever read, without a shadow of a doubt.”
Fantastic Four is currently scheduled to release on May 2, 2025. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer is now playing in theaters.
Source: Happy Sad Confused