Mads Mikkelsen Playing Main Villain In Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange’ — But Which One?


Mads Mikkelsen, who previously portrayed the violent, disturbing Dr. Hannibal Lecter on the television series Hannibal, was announced as part of the cast for Marvel’s Doctor Strange – but no one knew what character the actor play. Seeing as he’s become known for playing baddies, being cast as the film’s villain would have been a no-brainer. But it has finally been confirmed that Mikkelsen is indeed playing the movie’s main villain, according to Entertainment Weekly.

The film’s executive producer, Stephen Broussard, confirmed Mikkelsen’s role by saying, “Mads is playing our main villain.”

Mads Mikkelsen Playing Main Villain In Marvel's 'Doctor Strange' - But Which One?
Actor Mads Mikkelsen attends the closing ceremony and Premiere of ‘La Glace Et Le Ciel’ (‘Ice And The Sky’) during the 68th annual Cannes Film Festival on May 24, 2015 in Cannes, France. [Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images]

Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios president, goes into detail on what the audience can expect from Mads Mikkelsen.

“We will take audiences through sort of a guide to the multiverse, other dimensions, and there are amazing things out there — wonders that are going to be hopefully visually extremely interesting and unique to this movie. But there are also very scary things in these other dimensions. Mads’ character is a sorcerer who breaks off into his own sect. He believes that the Ancient One is just protecting her own power base and that the world may be better off if we were to allow some of these other things through.”

But, even from this description, the actual name of the character is never revealed. As of now, it is still unclear exactly who Mads Mikkelsen is portraying from the comic books – if he is portraying someone from the comic books. One direction the studio could go in is writing an original character just for the film, which would be unlikely, or they have cast Mikkelsen as a character that fans have not been able to accurately predict or guess. This is made evident when taking a closer look at what Broussard says on the matter.

“I’ve seen lots of names thrown around,” he said. “No one has quite picked the name that we’ve chosen for him. It would be fun to conceal that, if we can.”

The most ubiquitous name that Doctor Strange fans have been throwing around is Dormammu, who first appeared in Strange Tales #126, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Dormammu became a classic villain of Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange after ruling an alternate dimension. It would not at all be surprising to see Mads Mikkelsen play a character such as this. However, judging by what Feige and Broussard have said, he may not be playing Dormammu at all.

Feige says that Mikkelsen’s character is a sorcerer, presumably much like Stephen Strange aka Doctor Strange, and decides to create his own sect. This sounds like he is possibly playing a human character. However, Dormammu is not human, but rather more of a demon.

In the comic Dark Reign: The Hood #3, Dormammu was described as “something worse than a demon.” He appears to be ancient and even immortal, with no one really knowing how old he is. Dormammu would certainly be the perfect choice as the big bad for Marvel’s Doctor Strange, but he is not a sorcerer. Unless, of course, the studio and filmmakers involved are simply adding new elements to the character and changing his backstory around to fit their vision of where the story needs to go. That does remain a possibility.

The description of a rogue sorcerer going on his own path sounds like the character of Baron Mordo, who is indeed a sorcerer. Originally a student of the Tibetan sorcerer known as the Ancient One, who then opposes him, Mordo made a deal with his new master, Dormammu, to cultivate massive power to take down Doctor Strange. But it is believed that actor Chiwetel Ejiofor is playing the role of Baron Mordo, which again leaves Mads Mikkelsen out in the open. Who is he playing? We will have to wait for that information to be revealed, surely sometime next year.

[Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images for GQ]

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