10 Movie Characters Totally Changed During Production

6. Doctor Doom - Fantastic Four

The Character

Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell), a genius computer scientist who is transformed into the villainous Doctor Doom after a catastrophic accident in the parallel dimension known as Planet Zero.

What Changed?

Josh Trank's Fantastic Four was by all accounts a nightmare of a production, and if reports can be believed, Trank's arguments with Fox executives combined with his own volatile behaviour were an easy recipe for disaster.

Much of the film ended up being altered in re-shoots and editing, and the character of Doctor Doom is one such element changed-up substantially after principal photography was completed.

Von Doom was originally re-conceived as an anti-social computer programmer by the name of Victor Domashev, who would use the online hacking alias "Doom". But after news of this hit the web and fans expressed their displeasure, his origin story was tweaked in re-shoots to be more comic-faithful.

Clumsy editing also introduced a jarring time jump following Von Doom's accident, in turn removing his gradual transformation into Doctor Doom that had originally been shot by Trank. And because Kebbell didn't participate in re-shoots, Doctor Doom's final rampage was almost entirely performed by another actor.

Kebbell stands by his performance and that Trank made a far more interesting version of the overall story than fans will ever see. Whether that's true or not, there's no denying the choppy, safe-playing nature of the final cut micro-managed by meddling executives.