While this is most certainly a case of the cart getting in front of the horse, a new rumor has popped up with regards to the antagonists of Marvel’s Doctor Strange movie.  The studio has been talking about a feature film adaptation of the comic character for years, but Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently became quite a bit more confident about the film's prospects as he told us that a Doctor Strange movie was one of the first things the studio planned on getting to in Phase Three, after The Avengers 2 and Ant-Man.

Disney recently announced 2016 and 2017 release dates for two untitled Marvel films, and the general consensus is that one of those will indeed be the long-promised Doctor Strange pic.  Even though the film has yet to be officially announced and there’s still no director, a new rumor has popped up claiming to reveal which villains will be squaring off against Doctor Strange in the film.  Hit the jump for more.

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The folks over at Latino Review are reporting that Doctor Strange’s principal foe in the Marvel film will be the mystical entity Dormammu, referred to by Strange himself as his “most terrible foe.”  The character is an interdimensional being that possesses a healthy number of powers and abilities.  Additionally, LR reports that Baron Karl Mordo will appear as the film’s secondary villain/henchman and the Mindless Ones figures into an action sequence.  Bordo has the ability to manipulate magical forces through his years of studying black magic and mystic arts, while the Mindless Ones are rock-looking extra dimensional creatures that are summoned to do the bidding of others.

While I have no doubt that Marvel has plenty of story and plot ideas for its Doctor Strange movie, I wouldn’t put too much stake in all of these villains appearing in the eventual film.  As we saw with Iron Man 3, once Shane Black was hired as director and got to work with screenwriter Drew Pearce, the two dreamed up a different take on the film’s villain while in pre-production, one that Marvel subsequently approved.  The studio may have ideas regarding which villains they want to use, but Doctor Strange doesn’t even have a director-approved script, let alone a director.  The film will continue to be developed once a director is hired, and it’s possible that a new screenwriter/screenwriters might be brought in to re-tool the story to the filmmaker's liking (all approved by Marvel, of course).

Though it’s entirely possible that we could see one or more of the aforementioned villains in the eventual Doctor Strange movie, it’s also incredibly premature to start speculating on firm plot points.  Marvel has been developing a number of scripts for multiple feature film projects for years, and once one is given the firm go-ahead to become a fully-fledged movie, that development continues and results in further shaping of the story and characters.

I imagine Marvel will officially announced what those two “untitled” films set for release in 2016 and 2017 are at Comic-Con, so hopefully we start to hear more firm word about Doctor Strange in the coming months.  In the meantime, speculation is fun but don’t start preparing your opening night Mordo costume just yet.

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