Every superhero needs a special adversary to go up against to cement their position as a special defender of the innocent. For Doctor Strange, that was Kaecilius, the shadowy sorcerer who formed his own sect to overthrow The Ancient One and bring immortality to every living being on Earth. A few of the deleted scenes in Doctor Strange's home media release revolve around Kaecilius' schemes, and in the one below, you can see the main antagonist acting most sinister in a holy place.
Whenever a movie or TV scene takes place in a large, dark area with only candle illumination, it's likelier than not that something bad is about to go down. Sure enough, that's what Kaecilius has in store in this Doctor Strange deleted scene from Marvel Studios. Taking place after he and his Zealots made initial contact with Dormammu, the scene begins with the big bad quoting 2 Corinthians 4: 18 as he enters a church and a priest lights some of the candles. A foreboding environment if ever there was one.
The priest admires this stranger for memorizing that quote, but it quickly becomes apparent that Kaecilius isn't a fan of the Bible, saying that "that book promises eternity, but fails to deliver." When the priest tries to counter about the afterlife as some zealots surround them, Kaecilius retorts that the afterlife isn't real, and he proves it by conjuring two blades. The scene then cuts away, but we can reasonably assume what the priest's ultimate fate is.
On numerous occasions in Doctor Strange, Kaecilius boasted about how he was trying to help humanity, but he was also someone who didn't mind having acceptable losses. Getting rid of that priest was just another stepping stone towards accomplishing his goals, because even though that scene was cut from the final version of the movie, it transitions excellently to the moment in which Kaecilius and his goons tapped even further into the Dark Dimension. With their eyes freshly cracked and filled with new power, they now were able to target The Ancient One and tear down what the Masters of the Mystic Arts had built over thousands of years. What they didn't count on was a former surgeon with a knack for learning magic quickly getting in their way, and in the end, Kaecilius and his remaining followers got their wish to become immortal. It just happened with him being fused with the Dark Dimension instead.
Doctor Strange will be released on Digital HD tomorrow, and you can pick up the Blu-ray/DVD starting on February 28.
