Marvel Almost Cast Howard Stern As Doctor Doom In The MCU: True Or False?

The casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has proved to be pretty controversial, but there's another choice that was proffered up two years ago that might have caused an even bigger stir. To wit: picture it, king of all media as the Supreme Leader of Latveria. For a time, it looked like Howard Stern was considering playing Dr. Doom in "Fantastic Four: First Steps." Or was Stern just having a little fun with the media and his fans by planting a fake hot mic leak to make them talk?

The inciting incident involved audio that aired during a commercial break. "They're going over the schedule with me and it's gonna suck," Stern was "caught" telling Robin Quivers on a live microphone during a break in June 2022. Asked why by Quivers, Stern answered, "Well, I told you I'm gonna do Dr. Doom. But... believe me, I'm f*cking miserable about it." He then claimed that he had called — ironies of ironies! — Robert Downey Jr. for acting advice.

However, the entire thing was an intentional ruse from Stern and his merry band of pranksters. Stern revealed on his show during the week of September 4, 2022, that it was all a joke designed to get people talking. He admitted that he did it to prove a point about the Marvel rumor mill and how easy it was to spread fake leaks. But, ultimately, Stern was never in the running for the role.

That said, in a world where anything can happen and the most unusual actors end up snagging parts in high profile series, Stern's casting isn't that far-fetched — nor is his choice to tease comic fans by trying to play with their expectations.

Howard Stern may not have been in the running to play Doctor Doom, but he did intend to get involved in another Marvel movie and also trolled fans of the DCU by insisting he had a part in an earlier film.

Back in 1997, it was rumored that Stern was up for the part of The Scarecrow in "Batman Triumphant," which was slated to be the follow-up to "Batman & Robin." The George Clooney version of Batman ended up being mothballed, however, and the franchise was revamped and taken in a new, Christian Bale-heavy direction.

Getting back to Marvel, Stern revealed in 2015 that he nearly had a producing role in their universe. "I was a huge Ant-Man [fan]. In fact, I was telling Robin [Quivers] earlier in the morning, about 15 years ago I had a meeting with Marvel. I tried to buy the rights to Ant-Man because I said that's a cool franchise. I really tried, and I met with some of their dudes," he said on his show in July of 2015 (per MovieWeb). Ultimately, though, that's where Stern's behind-the-scenes history with "Ant-Man" ended.

A little-discussed aspect of Stern's history is that he's allegedly been up for all sorts of Hollywood franchise roles over the years, from a part in "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" to "Robocop." And that doesn't factor into projects and series regarding his own life and intellectual property that never got off the ground, like "Howard Stern: The High School Years." Perhaps Stern will end up a part of the MCU after all — or maybe he'll simply continue to troll the populace through his Sirius talk show.