Setting up a great villain takes time. Darth Vader is terrifying when he first shows up in Star Wars: A New Hope, but he doesn’t really hit his stride until Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, when he reveals that he’s Luke Skywalker’s father and chops off his son’s hand. The Marvel Cinematic Universe takes a page out of Star Wars’ book with its first Big Bad, Thanos. Despite appearing in the post-credits scene for The Avengers, it takes the Mad Titan multiple appearances over the span of several years to actually start making moves. While the build-up is grueling, it pays off in a major way in Avengers: Infinity War.
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The MCU has yet to recreate the Thanos magic with any of its other villains. Kang gets a similar set-up, appearing first in Loki before causing problems for Scott Lang and Co. in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. However, he never finds his footing, and now he’s out of the picture completely. The powers that be having that quick a trigger means that any evildoer waiting in the wings should be looking over their shoulder, especially one that was first teased nearly a decade ago.
2016 Was a Big Year for MCU Villains
Coming off of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the MCU decided to make a pit stop in 2016 before gearing up for the next big event film. Captain America: Civil War puts Earth’s Mightiest Heroes between a rock and a hard place due to the creation of the Sokovia Accords. Iron Man and Captain America can’t see eye to eye on the situation, which leads to a rift between them. The two heroes assemble teams and come to blows before realizing that Helmut Zemo, a Sokovian upset over what the Avengers did to his home, is behind the whole thing. Zemo’s plan to have the heroes tear themselves apart is one of the MCU’s most brilliant, putting him in the same league as Thanos.
The MCU’s other 2016 movie, Doctor Strange, doesn’t have a bad guy of Zemo’s caliber. Kaecilius is just a pawn in Dormammu’s game, using his abilities to help his master invade the human world. Dormammu isn’t much to write home about, either, as he’s not much more than a giant floating head that loses to a cheap trick. However, in the background, Doctor Strange is setting up another major villain, Baron Mordo, who doesn’t appreciate the way the titular character is using magic. Mordo vows to rid the world of anyone abusing their power, but so far, he’s only checked one name off his list. The MCU is in a holding pattern with Mordo, and it’s hard to understand why.
Baron Mordo May Not Have a Future in the MCU
After his MCU debut, Doctor Strange spends his next couple of appearances keeping the world safe from the likes of Loki and Thanos. There isn’t much time to check in with his old pal Mordo, and things become much more complicated due to the Snap. Of course, following his resurrection, Doctor Strange fights in the Battle of Earth before returning to New York and continuing his work. The Scarlet Witch then comes knocking in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and she ends up being a much bigger fish to fry than a rogue sorcerer. After all, she threatens the entire multiverse by using the Darkhold.
Mordo still finds his way into the sequel’s story, though. A variant of him appears on Earth-838 and is much more understanding than his Earth-616 counterpart. But running into a different Mordo doesn’t push Strange to seek out his former ally. In fact, he goes back to business as usual before running into Clea, who warns him about incursions. Their interaction clearly sets the stage for the events of Avengers: Doomsday, which will see another evil magic user, Doctor Doom, flex his muscles. The stories just keep getting bigger and bigger, and Mordo isn’t exactly marketing himself as a big villain. The reality may be that he just keeps operating in the shadows, hoping to one day cause enough of a stink to get on Strange’s radar.
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