As MCU sequels go, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was one of the most standalone from its predecessor as audiences hardly needed to remember much from 2016’s origins film for the Sorcerer Supreme. That said, it still brought back most of the players from the first movie, with Rachel McAdams and Chiwetel Ejiofor getting to portray variants of their original characters.
While McAdams briefly reprised the Earth-616 version of Christine Palmer, however, the OG Baron Mordo was MIA. This means the first Doctor Strange‘s post-credits scene, which saw Mordo swear death and destruction on Strange, remains dangling. As you’d expect, then, 616 Mordo was initially supposed to feature, only he got scrubbed from the script due to there not being enough room for him in the plot.
This is what screenwriter Michael Waldron revealed, anyway, in an interview with Murphy’s Multiverse. When asked if there was a draft where Mordo showed up, he explained:
“Yeah, there was. And we talked about that history and what had happened. We explored ways that would be interesting to intertwine with this story, but ultimately it felt like that was a story left for another day. He’s out there, what happened between them we don’t know. But I am certain we’ll find out.”
Without going too deep into spoilers, the variant of Mordo who does feature in Doctor Strange 2 differs from his mainstream counterpart in some key ways, although they also have certain similarities, too. Far from the promise of the OG movie’s credits scene, though, he’s definitely not the main villain of the sequel. So we’re still waiting to see what Ejiofor can really do with the character.
Like Waldron teases, maybe we’ll get to see the rise of 616 Mordo in Doctor Strange 3. Alternatively, he might show up elsewhere in the franchise. He could actually be an intriguing member of the Thunderbolts, a group of reformed villains, who are thought to be coming to the MCU soon. For the moment, enjoy meeting Earth-838’s Karl (yes, Karl), Mordo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.