The Doctor Strange Featurette Reveals the Villains' Plan—and Dormammu's Role!

Next week sees the release of the Captain America: Civil War Blu-Ray, and #Marvel is in the process of drip-feeding the special features on to the internet. Today, we got a look at one of the most anticipated treasures of that Blu-Ray — a Doctor Strange featurette! Take a look!

There's some new footage here, but the real highlights are brief comments from members of the cast. These don't really reveal much new information, but they do confirm popular theories, helping us to get a better grasp of what's going on in the film.

Baron Mordo and the Ancient One Train Doctor Strange

The first issue of the Doctor Strange Prelude comics revealed that Tilda Swinton's Ancient One gathers disciples and trains them as the 'Masters of the Mystic Arts'. These sorcerers are sworn to protect the world from dark magic, and use magic to travel across the planet in pursuit of deadly artifacts. The second issue presented Chiwetel Ejiofor's Baron #Mordo as the Ancient One's second-in-command, working closely with his master to train the Ancient One's disciples.

The video presents Karl Mordo as "the intro to Doctor Strange entering this universe". He and the Ancient One work together to train Doctor Strange, and there will be a strong mentor-pupil relationship between Mordo and Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange.

In the comics, Baron Mordo is one of Doctor Strange's greatest supervillains. It seems that Marvel Studios is playing the long-game, setting Mordo up as Strange's ally in order to have him betray Strange and the Ancient One in a sequel. To me, that's a smart move; Marvel films don't always have the strongest villains, and giving us time to get to know Baron Mordo will ensure that his betrayal has impact.

We Learn a Lot About Kaecilius's Motivations

Speaking of supervillains, the feature also provided us with some new information on Mad Mikkelsen's villain, #Kaecilius. Marvel has been very quiet about Kaecilius - it wasn't until June that they even revealed the name of the character! Every interview about the character seems to hint at a real excitement about Kaecilius; I think Marvel believe they've got their villain right this time.

This video reveals that Kaecilius is one of a group known as the 'Zealots,' who have become seduced by forces from other dimensions. Kaecilius has dedicated himself to "spilling the barriers between these dimensions".

Perhaps the most interesting part of this is the word 'seduced'. Screen-shots unwittingly shared by Community co-creator Dan Harmon - who's been working on reshoots for Doctor Strange - had included a file named 'Kaecilius_01_Seduction'. The video's use of the same word is telling; Kaecilius has travelled into another reality, and encountered a power that has tempted him away from the night. Given that another of Harmon's files was entitled 'Strange Confronts Dormammu,' it's not hard to work out just what cosmic force Kaecilius has been tempted by! Dormammu is a classic enemy of Doctor Strange, a demonic being of near-infinite power who seeks to extend his rule to our dimension. It seems that Kaecilius is — whether consciously or unwittingly — serving Dormammu's ends.

Marvel is planning to release a digital comic on ComiXology that will further explore the character of Kaecilius as a prelude to Doctor Strange. Although no publication date has been confirmed, it's likely to be towards the end of September, given that previous Doctor Strange Prelude comics have been released at the end of July and August.

So there you have it! That featurette may be short, but it gives us a lot of information! It supports everything we already knew or suspected about Dormammu's role and Baron Mordo's alliance with Doctor Strange. That said, Marvel seem to be truly excited about Kaecilius. A common criticism of Marvel movies is that they have a 'villain problem'; I think Kaecilius may well be the answer to that problem...