Mordo’s Return to the MCU: 10 Reasons to be Excited
2022 will see a second appearance from Mordo, and after a six year hiatus it’s an overdue return for an underrated character.
Cast your mind back to the simpler time of late 2016. You’re sat in the cinema watching Marvel’s latest release: Doctor Strange. Marvel have finally kicked down the doors to magic and mysticism. You’ve just seen spells, the cloak of levitation, the mirror dimension, the dark dimension, and time manipulation. It was a totally different flavour for Marvel, and showcased some of the best visuals. The end credits are rolling and just before they send you home, you see one of the most sinister post credit scenes, featuring Chiwitel Ejiofor as Mordo. You’re left with a cliffhanger of Mordo heading into sinister territory and embarking on an evil mission. It’s exciting, it’s dark, it leaves a lot of questions, and it sets up an awesome new villain with immense power.
And then nothing. For six years.
Where was he? They introduced a powerful sorcerer, a former pupil of The Ancient One, a mentor and friend of Doctor Strange, someone who has a chip on their shoulder and a twisted ideology of magic only being for a select group of people, and then he doesn’t make another appearance. It would have been easy to let this period of uncertainty fester into negativity, however most of us trusted there was a plan for Mordo, and they’d return after the shenanigans of Infinity War and Endgame. Well I’m pleased to say our patience has paid off because he’s finally back!
The first trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has been released, and while there is a lot to unpack, one element which cannot be understated is how great it is to see Mordo back on screen. There’s some chilling dialogue which eludes to the wider story, and a brief snippet of fairly angry combat. It’s not much to go off, but it’s enough. He’s coming back at such a big moment for the MCU, and a big moment specifically for mystical characters, so it’s safe to say these are exciting times. Before the film is released, I want to focus on some of the key reasons to be excited for Mordo’s return. So pop on your sling ring, grab your cloak of levitation, memorise your favourite incantations, and we’ll begin.
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10. The time gap
Sounds obvious because it’s a key point this article hangs upon, but it’s still important. The last time we saw this character was in the post credits of Doctor Strange. He had moved away from Strange and the teachings of The Ancient One, in order to go on his own mission. He’s made it clear magic shouldn’t be for everyone, and the last thing we see is him stripping Jonathan Pangborn of his magic and leaving him paralysed, declaring the problem is there’s too many sorcerers. What happened afterwards? Where did he go? What’s he been doing? Did he get snapped by Thanos? The fact there’s been such a substantial gap since we’ve last seen the character actually works in our favour because it means the person we’ll see now has been through experiences we’re yet to discover.
9. It evens up the teams
Not much is known about this film at present, but it does appear to feature a solid ensemble of heroes and villains. On the heroic side we’ve got Doctor Strange and Wanda returning, as well as America Chavez making her much awaited debut. Then for villains we’ve got an evil variant of Doctor Strange, not so famous comic villain Gargantos* and Mordo himself. I obviously don’t think this will be a simple team up of good vs evil as the title of this section might suggest, but Mordo being in this film certainly keeps the scales balanced and adds to the sheer chaos that will unfold. Doctor Strange will have his work cut out for him, especially when he’s facing someone who was formerly involved in his training and is a powerful sorcerer.
* Like many others, I did initially mistake this character for Shuma-Gorath, which is an easy mistake considering they look very similar.
8. Chiwitel Ejiofor is fantastic
It goes without saying, but Chiwitel Ejiofor is phenomenal, and he’s one of the finest actors working today. His performance in the first film was so passionate and layered, whilst also being likable to make his inevitable downward spiral land with a punch. If Marvel have such a great actor in a terrific role, why not use them more?
7. It’s another strong villain for Marvel
Marvel haven’t had the best track record for villains. They’ve had some more recent hits like The Vulture, Thanos and Killmonger, but largely they’re known for having fairly bland villains who are defeated in one film without leaving much of a trace. It’s of course too soon to call it, but it’s exciting to think this could be the next in a long line of appearances from Mordo.
Fixing the MCU’s villain problem only requires two steps:
Step one: flesh out the villains - give them solid motivations, let the audience see 360 degrees of the character. And for the love of god their plan needs to make sense, not just for the individual film and characters, but for the wider MCU if necessary. In short, the audience needs room to emotionally invest.
Step two: keep the villains around - what’s the rush? Why do they need to be defeated in one film? The beauty of the comic books is that good villains are recycled and we get to see their whole character arc play out. That can’t happen with disposable villains.
Mordo coming back is a healthy sign of progress. I may be proved wrong if he doesn’t survive this film, but he’ll at least have two films in total which is better than some villains!
Also, we can’t understate how important this character is. He’s a villain who dates back to Doctor Strange’s origin in the comic books, he most likely features in every top 10 if not top 5 list of Doctor Strange villains, so the character deserves respect.
6. The ‘Infinity War’/‘Endgame’ saga can’t have made him happy
Okay, so let’s run through which events potentially annoyed Mordo, keeping in mind he wants total control over who uses magic and what they use it for, and his main focus is maintaining the natural order.
I. Strange uses the time stone to see into the future and examine all possible outcomes of the upcoming conflict, to see which ones result in victory. Should he be using the stone at this capacity if it could potentially disrupt the natural flow of time? Mordo did warn about this and is a real stickler for the rules, so he might not approve of Strange’s methods.
II. Strange willingly gave the time stone to Thanos, and did so with knowledge of how the timeline could play out. He is influencing the timeline and pushing it in a certain direction to inspire one specific outcome.
III. With the time stone missing, as explained by The Ancient One in Endgame, it means there were a sea of mystical threats which could have entered our world during the five years Strange and the time stone were gone. Obviously Wong was still around and will have done his best to protect our realm, but it can’t have been easy with fewer sorcerers around.
IV. Strange’s friends/ colleagues used time travel to undo their own mistakes. This included The Ancient One willingly giving the time stone to Bruce Banner in 2012. The stakes were immense and we all know how dangerous Thanos was, but Mordo is again a stickler for the rules so perhaps wouldn’t approve of The Ancient One going against her own rules.
V. The second snap by Bruce Banner brought everyone back and was a huge event for our reality. It’s safe to assume the universe isn’t the same as it was before, and there will be some form of wound. In a similar way to when Stranger Things revealed the passage to the upside down was not a closed door, but instead was a wound that was still delicate. We’ve already seen from recent MCU projects it doesn’t take much for the damage in our reality to become aggravated and allow multiversal threats to reign down.
VI. As a result of these events, there is a new Sorcerer Supreme who rose to the title by default. As someone who has a lot of opinions about magic users and someone who was once poised to take over the role of Sorcerer Supreme, Mordo can’t be happy the title is now sitting with someone based on a technicality. The audience loves Wong, but Mordo most likely doesn’t anymore.
So there’s a lot of grievances to add to a character who already has a grudge against other magic users. He respects the rules, and it’s flagrant disregard for said rules which causes Mordo to take his dark turn in the first place. His crusade will have only been fuelled by these events.
5. The events of ‘Loki’ most likely didn’t make him happy
It’s unclear how the “sacred timeline” links to the world of mysticism, because with Kang The Conqueror in the spotlight I would assume it’s more of a cosmic matter, but either way the events of Loki had huge impacts for the universe. The multiverse exists, the walls of known existence are breaking down and variants have the means to travel between dimensions. To know the full impact of this we need only match it against Mordo’s words in the first film. The point in which Mordo fully lost patience with Doctor Strange is when he used the time stone to disrupt the flow of time. In fact he specifically warns of branch realities, like we’ve seen in Loki, so the timeline breaking and the multiverse happening can’t be good news. For all of his flaws, Mordo does genuinely care about the safety of our world, so now the whole universe is at risk I can see why tensions might arise.
4. ‘No Way Home’ won’t have made him happy
I won’t go into spoiler territory just in case people haven’t seen the film yet, but it’s clear the events were massive. The multiverse alone was always going to annoy Mordo, but Doctor Strange using a mind erasing spell on the entire planet for the sake of helping a friend? That’s not good. The fact the spell goes wrong only plays into Mordo’s hands. As much as we might not want to admit it, Doctor Strange has proven Mordo’s argument. Magic is clearly dangerous and there should be rules in place to prevent even the heroic sorcerers from ripping apart our reality like wet tissue paper.
Is the fabric of our reality totally fine after the events of the film, or is there going to be some form of tissue damage that will cause further problems? Match this with my earlier point about our reality already being fragile after the second snap in Endgame, and it adds fuel to a vicious fire that was already burning high.
Also, when Strange proposes they use the spell it is a damning moment for Wong too. Contrary to the shot we saw in trailers, there is instead a back and forth which ends with Wong disappearing through a portal and proclaiming he wants to be left out of what follows. As The Sorcerer Supreme, should he not have intervened? The Sorcerer Supreme was negligent and allowed a powerful spell to not only be used in the first place, but to go so insanely wrong. Again, they have only added to Mordo’s motivations.
3. The multiverse is the right time for him to return
There is a key phrase from Mordo in the first film which echoes in my mind:
“The bill comes due. Always.”
What he’s eluding to is magic has a cost. It doesn’t come freely and without consequences, there will always be a toll for the actions taken by sorcerers. So with Doctor Strange using magic for the personal gain of a friend, and in the process ripping open the doors of the multiverse, that’s not something Mordo is going to be best pleased with. The multiverse hasn’t come about in a happy way. In fact the trailer mirrors key points and visuals from the Doctor Strange episode of What If? whereby the evil variant of Doctor Strange brings about the total collapse of reality. As to whether that is the same evil Doctor Strange remains to be seen, but the headline here is that the nature of reality has been completely changed through Strange’s use of magic, and it’s not likely Mordo will let that pass without having stern words.
2. ‘WandaVision’ and the Westview incident absolutely won’t have made him happy
Where to even begin. So much happened in this series.
- An inexperienced magic user constructs a hex which took over every mind in a small town.
- The eventual reveal that said magic user is the Scarlet Witch, whose title is known/ feared and her power is beyond comprehension.
- Agatha Harkness steps out from the shadows. She’s an incredibly powerful magic user with an evil streak, and she’s still technically around by the end of the series (whether she’s aware of it or not).
- Scarlet Witch ends the series by studying the Darkhold and is seemingly on a mission to recover her children, Billy and Tommy. This would involve some dark magic and potential disruption of reality. She is after all a ‘nexus being.’
- On top of this, the way in which Wanda is studying the Darkhold proves how powerful she is. She’s using her astral form to read the book, while her physical form is still walking around and living normally. When any other character we’ve seen enters their astral form, including Doctor Strange, their physical form goes limp and drops to the floor like a dead body. The fact Wanda can do both shows she is more powerful than any sorcerer we’ve seen to date.
- There was a subtle tease that Mephisto exists in this universe. The fly on the blind in episode 7 is a reference to Mephisto’s first appearance in the comic books. It’s not exact confirmation, but if Mephisto exists and his attention has been grasped by Wanda’s actions, that spells out big trouble.
The series had a lot of developments for Marvel’s mystical characters, and the emergence of the Scarlet Witch isn’t something Mordo will have missed. If Agatha Harkness is annoyed about Wanda using magic without training or guidance, and using magic to such an impressive extent for her own selfish reasons, then its obvious Mordo is also going to have an opinion or several hundred. His darker turn in the Doctor Strange post credits scene is him not only saying magic isn’t for everyone, but magic shouldn’t be for everyone. So an unknown magic user springing out of nowhere and commandeering the minds of an entire town for what is essentially an extended therapy session completely opposes his mission to enforce rules and restrictions on magic users.
The events of the show and the trajectory for Wanda moving forwards sets up an interesting dynamic, if not an interesting conflict. We already know Wanda is a big part of this new film, so I can’t wait to see Wanda and Mordo interact. Mordo still seems to be heading down a darker route and opposing Doctor Strange, and although the trailer seems to show Strange reaching out to Wanda as an ally, I’m not convinced Wanda is going to be a hero moving forwards. That’s not to say she’s going to be a villain per say, but rather she’s going to operate in a moral grey area. At any given point Wanda is going to do what is best for her and what she needs to survive, whether that be siding with heroes or villains. So Mordo may be a friend or a foe, but either way there’s going to be a strange dynamic where he both fears and admires Wanda. In the comic books Doctor Strange is usually a friend to Wanda, especially during controversial times like the ‘House of M' story line. When all other characters are discussing whether to kill Wanda because she is too powerful and is out of control, Strange is one of the few characters arguing that Wanda is their friend and she needs help. It would make for an even more interesting conflict if after the events of WandaVision Strange is acting as a friend who realises Wanda needs support and guidance, but Mordo sees only a threat which needs to be stopped. Either way, Wanda is a spanner in the works who Mordo should quite rightfully be scared of.
1. The theme of mystical elitism
Following from the previous point, this is by far one of the most fascinating areas the MCU is exploring. Now the mystical pocket of the universe has been opened and magic users officially exist, it’s inspired a real sense of elitism and snobbery. There is a sense of magic only being for the select few, and anyone else shouldn’t have the power. Consider the two examples we’ve had so far:
I. Agatha Harkness in WandaVision - Agatha is not only confused, but seemingly outraged at the notion of Wanda appearing out of nowhere and managing to execute an extremely impressive feat of magic. Wanda is untrained, does not know the history of magic, does not respect the legacy or the craft, she’s unsupervised, and she possess a level of power Agatha wants for herself. This isn’t solely because Agatha has a hunger for power, but she clearly doesn’t think Wanda deserves her power. Wanda’s lack of knowledge, training and respect make her unfit and unworthy of her power.
II. Mordo himself - as previously mentioned, Mordo not only has the repeated line about magic having a toll, but he also takes away Jonathan Pangborn’s magic and is seemingly on a quest to make sure only the sorcerers he sees fit are the ones wielding magic. He doesn’t like the idea of everyday people using magic, and he even wants to police the way sorcerers use magic and stop them from interfering with the natural order.
With the multiverse being bust wide open as a result of Doctor Strange’s carelessness, Mordo’s quest is seemingly going to take another sharp turn. This isn’t just him coming back to see what all of the fuss is about, he’s coming back with an even bigger grudge to bear. I believe it’s Mordo we hear in the trailer saying:
“Your desecration of reality will not go unpunished.”
He’s not the sort of villain to simply stand back and cast judgement, he will intervene and take action, and he will deal punishments if he sees fit. Again, he echoes the theme of mystical elitism, and his response to transgressions is immediate correction, regardless of the side effects.
If you’ll indulge me for a moment, let’s briefly consider the evil version of Doctor Strange and entertain the idea this is the same character from the What If? series. If that is the case, this is a character who quite literally broke all of reality in an attempt to save the person he loves. At the end of Doctor Strange, our version of Strange meddled with time manipulation, disrupted the natural order and caused Mordo’s sense of elitism to go off the charts. Mordo doesn’t think our version of Doctor Strange should be a sorcerer, so what the heck is going to think of the variant who broke everything? Our version of Strange broke one dinner plate, whereas this variant was the literal bull in a china shop, however Mordo could easily be painting them both with the same brush. Again, the theme of mystical elitism is one of the best and most complicated areas Marvel are exploring, so a further examination of this through Mordo’s much awaited return could easily be a highlight of the year.
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The headline to take away is Mordo most likely isn’t happy going into this film. Which is bad news for the characters, obviously, but in a strange meta sense, this is great news for the audience. This is similar to the moment in Game of Thrones when one series ended on a sequence of the white walkers beginning their trek from the North down south, and you see the huge army they’ve amassed, complete with an ice dragon. For the characters in the show, it was the worst possible news, but for the audience? Holy shit it was amazing news! In terms of the stakes, the entertainment value, and the sense of foreboding, it was a great moment. So Mordo coming back is very similar. It is both bad news for the characters in universe, and great news for the audience who know they’re about to reach new levels of entertainment satisfaction.
Whether you were a fan of Mordo before this article or you were apathetic or disliked him, my hope is that after reading this you think about the character in a different way. I’m not trying to change your mind or say that you should be as excited as I am, but I hope at the very least I’ve provoked thought. I’m not trying recruit for the Mordo fan club, I’m merely attempting to inspire discussion.
Whatever your thoughts on the character, we’re all winners at the end of the day. Filmmakers are bringing amazing comic book characters to life on screen, and that in itself is an act of magic. A couple of years ago the multiverse was something we could only dream of being in a Marvel film, and now it’s happening. It’s happening at a time when Mordo is coming back like a goddamn hurricane. I can’t count how many times I’ve had discussions with friends about how and when Mordo would come back, so the fact it’s happening in such big and bold way makes the current world taste a lot sweeter than it has in recent years. For now, let’s all stay happy and healthy so we can see one of Marvel’s most ambitious projects to date on the big screen.
‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ releases in UK cinemas in May.
