10 Years Ago, Doctor Strange Almost Gave Us A Terrifying Marvel Villain's Big Screen Debut

2016's "Doctor Strange" made a puzzling choice with its main villain. For Benedict Cumberbatch's Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as Doctor Stephen Strange, he faced Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen). In the comics, Kaecilius was a disciple of Baron Karl Mordo, a mere henchman with a handful of appearances back during the Stan Lee and Steve Ditko run on "Strange Tales" in the 1960s. 

Nobody but the most ardent Doctor Strange fans would recognize the name Kaecilius. So, it's little surprise that director Scott Derrickson did not originally intend this character as the main villain of "Doctor Strange." His first choice for the movie's big bad was Nightmare, Lord of the Dream Dimension.

Nightmare was the original Doctor Strange villain; he debuted in Lee & Ditko's "Strange Tales" #110, which published the first-ever Doctor Strange story. Typically drawn with gray skin, pointed ears, and a green tunic, Nightmare feeds on the dreams (especially the negative ones) of sleeping humans. His native dimension is a surreal and often shifting landscape, reflecting the fluidity of dreams themselves. Though Nightmare predates Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" by three decades, one could think of him as an evil version of Morpheus/Dream.

As Derrickson told Empire back in 2016, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige convinced him Nightmare would complicate the movie too much:

"Kevin made a very cogent case. The trouble with starting with Nightmare is getting across the idea of the Dream Dimension as another dimension. The movie was challenging enough. It's already an exposition-heavy movie... Dormammu made the most sense. And he is the most present villain in the comics."

Dormammu is the overarching threat of "Doctor Strange," and the adversary Strange has to overcome in the climax, but Kaecilius is the one he faces down physically. Why, of all villains, did Derrickson choose Kaecilius?

In a 2016 interview with /Film, Scott Derrickson said he "loved" that Kaecilius was so obscure that Marvel fans had to look up who he was. He wanted "an antagonist who was rooted in the real world  [...] But who was empowered by something else." Derrickson compared this to "The Lord of the Rings," where corrupted wizard Saruman (Sir Christopher Lee) is an instrument of the ethereal Dark Lord Sauron. 

"Doctor Strange" also chose to hold off on Mordo's villainous turn. The MCU Kaecilius absorbed Mordo's role as a rogue student of master wizard the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), who now serves the Dread Dormammu. Good ol' Karl (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) helps Strange fight Kaecilius, and he only starts turning to the dark in the movie's post credits scene. It's evident the plan was for Mordo's downfall to unfold over sequels, but this only left him to fall through the cracks along with several other MCU villains.

Once the first movie set-up was out of the way, Derrickson planned to use Nightmare in his "Doctor Strange" sequel. However, he departed the project, and Nightmare did not appear in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" where a rogue Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) was the main villain instead. Derrickson's slasher sequel "Black Phone 2" almost feels like him getting his desire to portray Nightmare out of his system, since the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) kills via dreams. 

To this day, Nightmare has not shown up in the MCU. The closest Marvel fans can get is an episode of cartoon "Ultimate Spider-Man," where Nightmare was voiced by master of villainous voiceover Mark Hamill. Nightmare isn't one of Hamill's best roles, but that's only due to stiff competition.