Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness shocked audiences when Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff turned out to be the Sam Raimi-directed film’s antagonist. Although the Scarlet Witch ended up being key to the plot in the Doctor Strange sequel, recently revealed concept art shows the comic book supervillain Nightmare was initially going to make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in the film.
Artist, Ryan De Silva, has unveiled artwork created for director Scott Derrickson’s version of the Doctor Strange sequel, which would have introduced Nightmare for the first time into the MCU. The villain was later removed from the film when Derrickson and writer C. Robert Cargill left the project. Even though the previous director wished to include the classic Doctor Strange villain in his Multiverse of Madness, it is uncertain how long they considered him as an addition; but rumors surrounding Nightmare continued even after Derrickson and Cargill stepped away from the project due to creative differences. After announcing their departure in January 2020, Raimi (known for the Tobey Maguire-led Spider-Man trilogy and The Evil Dead franchise) was made director alongside writer Michael Waldron.
The concept art De Silva shared included ancient text and illustrations in something called the Dream Codex depicting Nightmare sporting medieval armor and riding a horse. The second image went on to depict the comic book villain with horns, samurai armor and a sword along with what appears to be an early iteration of the Book of Vishanti, the light counterpart of the Darkhold. Along with the concept art, set designs released by Oliver Carroll show they planned for him to appear in at least one scene with the film's hero. The set designs show Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) up against Nightmare on a frozen lake, which ties back to another scene involving the hero’s deceased sister. Earlier this year, concept artist Darrell Warner shared a few early pieces on Instagram that come from a scrapped flashback where his sister falls into a frozen lake and ends up passing away from hypothermia.
Even though Nightmare was cut from final plot for Multiverse of Madness, it doesn’t mean he will not be returning in future MCU projects. The Doctor Strange sequel’s post-credit scene introduces Charlize Theron as Clea, who drops a bombshell on Strange, telling him he caused an “incursion” and asking him to join her on a journey to the Dark Dimension. The scene implies the third Doctor Strange film will follow them as they attempt to fix this “incursion,”; who knows, maybe this could revive Nightmare as an MCU villain.
Multiverse of Madness followed the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home and introduced Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, whose character also changed drastically throughout the making of the film. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now streaming on Disney+.
Check out Nightmare's designs below:
