What Franklin Richards Might See in Doctor Doom's Eyes in Fantastic Four: First Steps

The credits scene of The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn, brings Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom into the MCU, face to face with Franklin Richards. My read is that Franklin is probably not healing Doom's scarred face. I do think he sees something familiar in Doom's eyes, possibly some form of the Power Cosmic.

In the weeks after the film released, we learned more about what this appearance meant ahead of Avengers: Doomsday. We also learned more about what is going on between Doom and Franklin in this moment.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps credits scene is set around 1969 or 1970

The scene takes place four years after the ending of the film. The epilogue, built around the Ted Gilbert show, is set several months after the final battle with Galactus, and that battle took place in December 1965 of that timeline. That would make Franklin Richards closer to five years old. So we are either in 1969 or 1970 in the 828 universe.

You can see that cultural shift in the scene's look: Sue's outfit, her hairstyle and the new decor of the Baxter Building. There are now lots of reds and browns where there used to be baby blues. Sue wears a red turtleneck and a plaid skirt, with longer hair that reflects women's hairstyles later in the decade. Franklin wears a blue turtleneck, showing how eager he is to join his parents' generation's team.

What we're seeing now is closer to Mad Men season 7, where we used to be in Mad Men season 4. Or you could say we're now in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, where we used to be in That Thing You Do! Why the time jump? Presumably because Avengers: Doomsday needs Franklin to be about five. This has to be a kid who can communicate with the adults of the movie and make decisions, not a baby or a toddler who is completely out of control.

I've already covered other details in the scene: The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a reflection of Franklin's innate hunger as a possessor of the Power Cosmic, Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species as a nod to Franklin's status as an evolved mutant in the comics, and the music listed in the credits as Doom by Alan Silvestri. I also spotted a book about Schrödinger's cat, a clear nod to the multiverse events ahead. I need to admit, though, that the Schrödinger book and the Moon and Stars book are two different books, one stacked in front of the other on the shelf.

The Russo brothers directed the Doom scene with Robert Downey Jr. on set

Since then, director Matt Shakman confirmed in a director debrief interview with Brandon Davis that the Russo brothers directed the scene. Davis noted that the Russos had also done the credits scene for Thunderbolts. Asked whether it was Downey in the suit, Shakman said yes. That means it was Robert Downey Jr. on set wearing the green hood.

Vanessa Kirby also confirmed in an interview with Variety that Downey was on set with her as she, Downey, the Russos and the child playing Franklin shot the scene for Avengers: Doomsday. She said: "Yeah, Robert's never not been on set. He's always there. He is our leader. We call him our Godfather."

Avengers: Doomsday was set to spend time in the Baxter Building

It may be easy to assume this leads to Doom kidnapping Franklin, followed by the Fantastic Four pursuing them into other dimensions, which is how it could connect to the Thunderbolts credits scene. But we also had it confirmed that Avengers: Doomsday would not leave the 828 universe that quickly.

Kevin Feige told Marvel.com that we would see the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men all in each other's homes, and that this would include the Baxter Building. He said the building had four or five people in it at most in the Fantastic Four movie, and a lot more in Doomsday.

In an interview with Collider, Vanessa Kirby and Ebon Moss-Bachrach talked about the Baxter Building being more crowded in Doomsday. The conversation touched on how intimidating it is to walk into a world of people who have been making these movies for about 20 years, and how being on a familiar set offers something like a home court advantage when the experience can be surreal.

Why Doctor Doom wears a mask in the comics

Many readers have asked me why Franklin reaches out to Doom's face, whether he might be healing it, and why Doom took off his mask at all. To answer that, we should start with why Doom wears a mask to begin with. In the classic comic origin from the early 1960s, Victor von Doom and Reed Richards were roommates at State University, and they did not like each other. Ben Grimm was also a student there, on the football team, a good friend to Reed who didn't like Victor either. The movie gives a subtle nod to Ben's college football days in a newspaper headline about Ben speaking at a Heisman event.

In college, Reed was more interested in building a starship, while Victor focused on technology that could project his astral form into other dimensions. We later learned he was trying to free his mother's soul from Mephisto, though that was a 1989 addition to his backstory. Reed tried to warn Victor about a flaw in the machine. Victor ignored him, and an accident scarred his face.

Victor, arrogant and incapable of admitting his mistakes, blamed Reed. A later comic retconned the accident as the result of Ben Grimm messing with the machine. Whoever caused it, the scarring, plus Victor's ego, vanity and anger at Reed, is why he traditionally wears the mask and almost never takes it off. Avengers: Doomsday, though, seems to be establishing new backstory for the mask, given how the Russo brothers and Robert Downey Jr. explained Downey's return as the MCU's big bad at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024 with only the words "New mask, same task."

Is Franklin Richards healing Doctor Doom's face?

Doom taking off the mask to reveal his face to Franklin is a very big deal that we shouldn't overlook. I get the speculation that Franklin is healing him, but I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. If the team and makeup artists on Avengers: Doomsday came up with interesting makeup or prosthetics for Downey's face, I think they're going to want that look to be part of his villainous look for the whole film. They wouldn't want to wipe it away in an early scene so he looks like Tony Stark again for the rest of these two movies.

He's probably taking the mask off for the same reason any adult stranger would when greeting a child: to reassure them, to connect emotionally, or to connect on some deeper level that only Victor and Franklin can. The fact that Franklin doesn't react means the scarring can't be that severe. Downey was cast for a reason. I expect prosthetics that still let him look mostly like himself, not anything that transformative, and clearly they want him to look vaguely like Tony Stark. Victor will be someone who traverses the multiverse and finds the 616 universe, where the most important person in it looks like him, and that will be part of why he considers that universe important.

Franklin reaches for Doom's eyes, where the Power Cosmic shines

Still, the fact that Franklin reaches up suggests to me that something about Victor's appearance draws Franklin's Power Cosmic. The way Galactus' Power Cosmic was innately drawn to Franklin, even when he was a fetus in the womb, is the same kind of connection Franklin now shares with Victor. I've even described it as a kind of hunger.

Look closely and Franklin isn't reaching for Victor's cheeks or chin. He's reaching higher, to eye level. And where does the Power Cosmic come from? When Galactus first uses it in the movie, his eyes. The purple cosmic glow also shines from Sue's eyes when she is resurrected, and in that revival moment you can see what look like stars, swirling universes, not unlike what fills Peter Quill's eyes when Ego the Celestial taps his head to show him eternity.

Is Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom from Earth 828?

I've previously theorized that Franklin, and maybe Victor, could be anchor beings: Franklin for 828, Victor for whatever universe he's from. I recognize the movie includes the Latverian delegation and the Future Foundation, and Alex Perez of The Cosmic Circus posted with some confidence that Downey's Doom is from universe 828. That may well be true. But until we get an actual source from Marvel Studios or someone working on these films, Alex saying it is about as trustworthy as me boldly saying the exact opposite. Neither of us works on these movies. We're theorizing.

In my own theorizing, I'm struggling to justify how Doom could be established in the 828 universe, even four years after the main events, without the Fantastic Four knowing about him or better securing the Baxter Building against intruders teleporting in. So I'm assuming Doom is probably a threat Sue never saw coming.

Doctor Doom may be a survivor like Galactus

What is the Power Cosmic, going by this movie? It's a godly power Galactus has, presumably because he survived the Big Crunch of his universe, a universe he was supposed to die in, and reemerged into a new universe not designed for him. That makes the Power Cosmic a violation, a cheat code, a glitch in the matrix that makes you a kind of god who can break the rules like Neo. Franklin used it to defy his mother's death. Sue was supposed to die, and Franklin stopped it. That he has this power is a sign he will be an important reality warper when the MCU reboots after Secret Wars.

The fact that Franklin sees something in Victor's eyes suggests that whatever accident scarred Victor might also have made him a survivor of an event he was meant to die in, maybe even a universe that was supposed to be destroyed, like Galactus. Franklin may recognize that same power in this strange man's eyes. I think it's less likely that Franklin is healing the scarring, because that scarring is going to be too important to who Doom is throughout Doomsday. But Franklin probably does see a familiar glow, and if this Doom is based on God Emperor Doom from the 2015 Secret Wars event, he might also possess an MCU form of the Power Cosmic.