Who is Dormammu? Everything to know about the ‘Doctor Strange’ villain.

Culture

Marvel's newest entry in its ever-expanding Cinematic Universe, Doctor Strange, is going to be a trippy movie-watching experience, filled with talk of chakra, multiple dimensions and Tilda Swinton. Part of this mind-bending exploration into other dimensions could also lead the film to introduce one of the superheroes' most formidable adversaries: Dormammu

While Marvel and the film's director Scott Derrickson haven't officially confirmed the character's appearance in the film, a featurette breaking down the multiverse Strange will explore has a very brief tease of a foreboding presence that bears some likeness to the character. 

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Plus, Marvel Studio's president Kevin Feige did confirm that viewers will see a "glimpse" of the Dark Dimension — where Dormammu resides in the comics. 

"We see glimpses of something called the Dark Dimension," Feige told Empire magazine in January. "If you were to open a Doctor Strange comic drawn by Steve Ditko, you would see the Dark Dimension is, in fact, very colorful in an extremely psychedelic way. Those are the things we're not shying away from." 

In the comics, Strange also has a long history with Dormammu. The dark entity is initially sealed away from Earth by the Ancient One. As any world-ending plot in a Marvel saga goes, if he escapes he will destroy everything. It's up to Strange, then, to defeat Dormammu whenever he inevitably breaks free. 

By all accounts, Mads Mikkelsen's Kaecilius is going to be the main villain in Doctor Strange. But perhaps, given the Dormammu tease from one of the film's featurettes, he's the one pulling the strings from afar — with a larger role in the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The best way to find out, however, is to check out Doctor Strange, which arrives in U.S. theaters Friday.