Doctor Strange: What Surprised Scott Derrickson While Bringing Magic to the MCU
Bringing magic, the multiverse, and the Sorcerer Supreme himself to the big screen wasn't any [...]
Bringing magic, the multiverse, and the Sorcerer Supreme himself to the big screen wasn't any taller order than any other film project for director Scott Derrickson. As much as fans from the outside looking in may think that makes for a nigh-impossible task, Derrickson treated it like he was doing any other film - he was focused on telling a story. That didn't mean there weren't things that popped up throughout the process that surprised the director, though. When he really started to work on the Ancient One's tale, and how she related to Mordo and Strange, he was shocked at how it played out.
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"I think that the moral complexity and moral conundrum that the ancient one had clearly faced in her past and her decision to draw power from the dark dimension and the impact that that had on Strange and Mordo; that was the biggest surprise," Derrickson told Comicbook.com in a recent interview. "If you're really watching the movie and really listening to Strange's position and the Ancient One's position and in particular Mordo's position on that decision that she made and the impact that that had on Kaecilius that's really the central event in the movie. That is what gave birth to Kaecilius and his coveting eternal life."
Indeed, her one decision not only opened th link to the dark dimension, thus possibly even bringing Earth and our realm into the purview of Dormammu, but set these three disciples onto different paths of coveting, rigidly following the rules, and being willing to bend them to help others; it's basically allowing us to see every direction her decisions could go, all at once. That's what gives us a good setup to a possible sequel - while telling a good, complete story in the first film as well.
"Mordo says to Strange toward the end, 'She taught us it was forbidden while she drew power from the dark dimension to gain centuries of life and her actions created the zealots. Caused Kaecilius to covet eternal life.' All of that is true and highly consequential," the director, who also co-wrote the film, said. Despite him being against what Strange does to save the universe, Derrickson's assertion about Mordo's point of view is intriguing.
"Mordo is right," he said, "but Strange and the Ancient One herself, who take a more flexible view of moral absolutes, saying she did what she thought was right. She kept the world safe for 700 years. There is a bit of the ends justify the means there. Is there some sort of suspension of ethical absolutes in that?"
That's what he liked exploring - despite (or because of) the results and the characters' takes on it surprising him.
"I think they're all right and in the end I do think that what ... I don't think that any one of them are wrong in their position, but in the end it is Strange's flexibility, as she says, that allows him to survive the wickedness that he is up against and it is the moral rigidity of Mordo that breaks him and ends up breaking him in a way that by the final tag you realize has made him mentally unhealthy."
Ultimately, Derrickson said "that's a tall conceptual order to bring into a Marvel movie" with a slight chuckle. It was something he was concerned, as it developed, would be pushed back upon by Marvel Studios. "I never would have set out to try to do that. It just became the reality of the storytelling and I'm really glad that Marvel was supporting my desire to drive it in the direction that it did because there was, of course, the initial response of, 'Well, wait a minute. Does that mean the Ancient One was bad?' And we sometimes in our test screens we would get response cards from people asking that question. I love that we didn't shy away from that moral complexity and sort of let it stay where it was and that these were three characters all who desired moral behavior, but had disagreements about the nature of morality itself."
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Doctor Strange will appear next in Thor: Ragnarok, and is also due to appear in Avengers: Infinity War, which began principal photography this week. Doctor Strange hits digital HD February 14, and DVD/Blu-ray on February 28.
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