SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Doctor Strange. If you have not yet seen the film, and don't wish to know details about the ending, please save this page and click away to another one of our wonderful articles!
By the end of Scott Derrickson's Doctor Strange, the zealot Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) actually does kind of get what he wants. It's his mission to bring Dormammu to Earth and be with him for an undefined eternity -- and that's what happens, only not the way that Kaecilius expects. Rather than being with Dormammu on his own planet, the former follower of the Ancient One and his colleagues instead find themselves stolen away to the Dark Dimension. It's an ending that begs the question, "Could Kaecilius return?" and it was one that I recently posed directly to Mads Mikkelsen.
I sat down with the great Hannibal and Casino Royale star during the Doctor Strange junket in Los Angeles in late October -- and at the end of our conversation, asked what he thought about his future as Kaecilius. Mikkelsen was mostly non-committal in his answer, but definitely did leave the door open for the character's return in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Said the actor,
I don't know. He was not looking too sharp in the end of this movie, but you never know.
In response to this, I noted that neither Doctor Strange nor Dormammu killed Kaecilius in the movie, and that the character was instead just taken away to another dimension. To this Mads Mikkelsen responded with a smile,
Yeah, it's like [snaps] a blink of an eye away.
Truth be told, while Doctor Strange on the whole is reminiscent of Jon Favreau's Iron Man and Kenneth Branagh's Thor, the fate of the villain is actually very similar to Joe Johnston's Captain America: The First Avenger. Like Kaecilius, Hugo Weaving's Red Skull was also taken away to another point in space and time -- albeit by the power of the tesseract instead of the will of a god from another dimension. Fans have spent years speculating about the potential return of Red Skull in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so one can have hope for Kaecilius. Maybe he can wind up somehow being on Team Thanos when The Avengers: Infinity War goes down.
You can watch Mads Mikkelsen talk about his potential future as Kaecilius in the video below:
Doctor Strange is in theaters now, and be sure to stay tuned for more from my interviews with the cast and filmmakers from the latest Marvel Studios film!
