Was Doctor Doom Originally Supposed to Be Played By Howard Stern?
Was the King of All Media almost the Supreme Leader of Latveria?
In the mighty MCU multiverse, there appears to be at least one reality in which SiriusXM shock jock Howard Stern would have played Dr. Doom. Or appeared in a Doom-adjacent project. Or welcomed Victor Von Doom into the Wack Pack.
Is any of it true? It’s a question worthy of Marvel’s Disney+ series What If…?
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The story all started in the innocent, pre-Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania days of 2022 when a hot mic caught some inadvertent Stern chatter with Robin Quivers after he mistakenly believed the show had signed off for the summer.
The villainous dialogue happens under various radio commercials and show audio, but it’s not hard to make out Stern’s villainous plans: “They’re going over the schedule with me, and it’s gonna suck,” Stern moans.
“Are you working this summer?” Robin asks?
“Well, I told you — I’m gonna do Dr. Doom,” Stern replies. “But believe me, I’m fucking miserable about it.” Now he was going to have to spend his summer working again, just like in his tormented America’s Got Talent days.
Robin wanted to know if Howard was at least excited about it. Stern confesses that he called Robert Downey Jr. (!) for some acting advice before Baba Booey realized what was happening and cut the mic.
Was this all elaborate Kevin Feige misdirection? An extremely long con intended to pay off at San Diego Comic-Con when Dr. Doom removes his mask to reveal not Stern but his acting coach Downey?
Because the current slate of Marvel movies involves convoluted plot lines involving multiple realities — including one, apparently, in which a twisted version of Tony Stark can become Victor Von Doom — it’s not out of the question that Stern actually will portray Doom, or at least one of his alternate-reality incarnations. Certainly given the mind-boggling number of fan-service cameos in Deadpool and Wolverine, we can’t rule it out.
Now if we can only get Stern Wack Packer Beetlejuice a cameo in this year’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.