Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige has already spoken about the decision to make Baron Karl Mordo a more heroic character in Doctor Strange, and now the actor that plays him, Academy Award-winner Chiwetel Ejiofor, has weighed in on why he feels altering the comic book version of Mordo’s more villainous tendencies ultimately benefited the film.
During an interview with Collider, Ejiofor suggests that Mordo’s comic book origins are a bit two-dimensional, and that giving him more of a genuine connection to Kamar-Taj and his mentor, The Ancient One, fleshes out the character a little and adds some depth. Of course, there’s always the chance he’ll still betray his friends at some point – but don’t expect that to transpire as it does in the source material.
In the comics, Mordo is extremely envious of Strange, and this plays a part in his decision to turn against the Sorcerer Supreme and plot to murder The Ancient One. However, Ejiofor hints that, should his character go down a villainous path, petty jealousy won’t have a whole lot to do with it.
I don’t think of him as a kind of envious or jealous entity. I think he’s much purer than that. That’s what I mean by the comics create a slightly more two-dimensional aspect. But the place, Kamar-Taj, what it means and what it means to Mordo, is so strong and his defense of it is so deep and his loyalty is so committed–to the ideas of Kamar-Taj, to the reality of Kamar-Taj, and to the Ancient One that he would react to any perceived threat but it wouldn’t come from a place of envy but from a place of protection and loyalty.
Personally, I don’t believe we’ll see Mordo break bad in this movie, but the inevitable sequel may well be a different story.
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