What's the Deal With that 'Doctor Strange' Villain, Anyway?

By Rebecca Pahle | Film | November 8, 2016 |

By Rebecca Pahle | Film | November 8, 2016 |

Doctor Strange came out over the weekend and, y’know, s’alright. Trippy, inventive visuals from director Scott Derrickson. Rachel McAdams playing a time traveler’s significant other for the fourth time. A complete and utter underutilization of Michael Stuhlbarg. Mads Mikkelsen, post-Sephora binge. Chiwetel Ejiofor’s arms, which, as the gospel of Kinky Boots tells us, it is best not to fuck with.

Please, God, tell Mordo he hasn’t inspired something burgundy.

SPOILERS.

Doctor Strange’s biggest problem, in this opinion-haver’s humble opinion, is that under the style it was a whole lot of sameyness. Sameyness done, for the most part, well. I enjoyed the film. But still. Benedict Cumberbatch playing Iron Man, except not funny. Supporting characters and villains aren’t really fleshed out, so even though Marvel gets top-notch actors to play them, they can tend to feel like little more than window dressing for the main character. And I swear to God, if a screenwriter tries to give me one more sky portal…

And then there’s the secret baddie, Dormammu, purple cosmic supervillain who has at the #1 skill set on his CV Being Vaguely Menacing While Hanging Out In Outer Space.

Another one, Marvel. Another. One?

If you came out of Doctor Strange wondering whether Dorito and Thanos, permapricktease of the MCU (“He’s gonna be so good, you guys. Here he is wondering where his Bedazzler went for his fancy glove. Here he is sitting… on a chair. Get excite!”), are meant to be the same character, you are not the only one. It seemed a little weird to me, too, that Marvel would introduce two villains whose character design and personality (at this point: hang out in space and sound intimidating) are exactly-the-fucking-same, and yet not have them be related in some way. Oh, and these Twitter randos thought so, too.

Okay but is Dormammu supposed to be a manifestation of Thanos in Doctor Strange movie or are they two separate villains I'm very confused

— Jack (@HayThurJack) November 6, 2016

Not too savvy on #DoctorStrange, but is Dormammu the mystic version of Thanos. I mean, they did say the Eye of Agamotto is an infinity stone

— NDN Dave (@braidsNshades) November 5, 2016

Dormammu in MCU is Thanos right??? #DoctorStrange

— Adrian Benedict I (@adrianirvan) October 27, 2016

so now that we have all seen Doctor Strange was anyone else like "uh… is that guy just supposed to be Thanos using a different name or…"

— Angie J. Han (@ajhan) November 8, 2016

@tvandfilmguy it's weird that no one seemed to think audiences would find that confusing, right

— Angie J. Han (@ajhan) November 8, 2016

Yay Twitter randos!

(If Thanos and Dodge Durango are supposed to be the same person, it’s a little weird that Mister Doctor was rocking an Infinity Stone right in front of Dulcolax and he didn’t even notice, but for all Thanos is obsessed with Infinity Stones he also seems to be something of a dipshit about acquiring them up to this point, so fine.)

Short answer: No, in the comics, Thanos and Decepticon are not the same. Domino’s has his own long and storied history as Doctor Strange’s arch-enemy, as laid out in this guide over at Collider. Del Frisco’s, the ruler of the Dark Dimension, is occasionally purple and also used to have a giant match for a head, because comics.

Also: Thanos is voiced by Josh Brolin, and Dingo is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, because fuck it, he’s already there.

There’s nothing to say the characters of Thanos and Demi Lovato won’t be revealed to have some sort of connection later on - maybe second cousins twice removed or something. Anything’s possible. But as it stands now: No. They are not the same person. These two completely separate Marvel supervillains just showed up to the party wearing the exact same outfit. Awkwaaaaaard. And lazy.