Doctor Strange 2 Concept Art Confirms Iconic Villain Was Cut

By Adam Barnhardt

Before Scott Derrickson parted Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the filmmaker was candid about his desire in seeing Nightmare appear in the project. The villain is Stephen Strange's one true archnemesis and the characters even first appeared in the same comic together. Now, concept art has surfaced online showing what the  villain may have looked like in the series.

In one set of photos, Strange can be seen standing near the lake house his sister died at. Out on the frozen ice is Nightmare atop Dreamstalker, his black stead he's often seen with in the comics. Those images are courtesy of art director Oliver Carroll.

Separate photos show Nightmare drawn into an ancient book, courtesy of concept artist Ryan De Silva. Both pieces of concept art show a version of the character vastly different than his comic book counterpart, appear much more medieval and realistic compared to the otherworldly horror character he's seen as in the source material.

"Possibly Nightmare, but he's a tricky villain to get right. And you can't tell the story of Doctor Strange w/out eventually dealing w/Clea," Derrickson wrote back in 2017 during a Q&A with fans on Twitter. The filmmaker had previously explained he tried to get the villain in the first film as well, though studio executives shot down the idea.

"Kevin [Feige] made a very cogent case," the director told Empire. "The trouble with starting with Nightmare is getting across the idea of the Dream Dimension as another dimension. The movie was challenging enough. It's already an exposition-heavy movie... Dormammu made the most sense. And he is the most present villain in the comics."

"We decided not to do that because that's a bit of a complex idea to try to introduce everything we do introduce and introduce the idea of nightmares themselves as being a dimension," the filmmaker explained in a separate interview. "I hope somewhere down the line we do get to explore that because I think that's super cool concept."

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now streaming on Disney+ and available for purchase on physical home media wherever movies are sold. What'd you think about the sequel? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

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