Doctor Strange 2 Concept Art Reveals Nightmare’s Design
The iconic Doctor Strange villain almost made his MCU debut in Scott Derrickson’s version of the sequel.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness shocked audience if Elizabeth Olsens Wanda Maximoff turned out to be the Sam Raimi-Antagonist of the directed film. Although the Scarlet Witch was key to the plot in the Doctor Strange Sequel, recently revealed concept art reveals that comic book supervillain Nightmare would originally make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in the film.
Artist, ryan desilva, has unveiled artwork created for the director Scott Derricksons version of the Doctor Strange Sequel that would have introduced Nightmare to the MCU for the first time. The villain was later removed from the film as Derrickson and screenwriter C.Robert Cargill left the project. Even if the previous director wanted to include the classic Doctor Strange villain in his Multiverse of Madness, it is uncertain how long they regarded him as a complement; but Nightmare rumors continued even after Derrickson and Cargill pulled out of the project due to creative differences. After announcing her departure in January 2020, Raimi (known for the Toby Maguire-LED Spiderman trilogy and The bad death franchise) was appointed director alongside the writer Michael Waldron.
The concept art that De Silva shared included ancient text and illustrations in something called the Dream Codex, which depicts Nightmare wearing medieval armor and a horse. The second image showed 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 Darkhold’s light counterpart. Along with the concept art, set designs were released by Oliver Caroll show that they had planned for him to appear in at least one scene with the film’s hero. The set designs feature Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) against Nightmare on a frozen lake, which ties into another scene with the hero’s deceased sister. Concept artist earlier this year Darrell Warner shared a few early bits on Instagram, taken from a scrapped flashback of his sister falling into a frozen lake and dying of hypothermia.
Although Nightmare was cut from the final storyline Multiverse of Madness, that doesn’t mean he won’t be returning in future MCU projects. That Doctor Strange The post-credits scene of the sequel is presented Charlize Theron when Clea, dropping a bombshell on Strange, tells him he caused a “raid” and asks him to join her on a journey to the Dark Dimension. The scene implies that the third Doctor Strange film will follow them as they try to fix this “incident”; 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 during filming. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now streaming on Disney+.
Check out Nightmare’s designs below:
