Chiwetel Ejiofor Discusses Baron Mordo's Redefined Role As An Ally To DOCTOR STRANGE

While Baron Karl Mordo is most widely recognized by comic fan as a villain, Marvel Studios will be taking a much different approach to the character when Doctor Strange releases this November. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige stated in a previous interview that the studio didn't want to move the film's story in an obvious direction by making Mordo a villain, opting instead to craft the character as a man highly devoted to the cause of the Ancient One. In a new interview with Collider, actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Mordo, elaborated a little more on this decision and how it will affect his relationship with Benedict Cumberbatchs' Stephen Strange.

Ejiofor says he did read Doctor Strange comics in preparation for the role, though his main goal was to craft a more "three dimensional" character in Mordo, something he feels was lacking in the comics. "The source material was very helpful in terms of trying to construct an overall understanding of him and his relationship to the place, Kamar-Taj, and his relationship to the Ancient One. Of course in the source material, it’s a much more two-dimensional story in some ways. But one of the richest things of this is finding the other space and really trying to create something that’s very three-dimensional and a person who has a real history and a real background and, as in the comics, has a very good relationship with Kamar-Taj and the Ancient One and by extension Strange himself."

"I think that Mordo is the first to recognize the potential in Strange and becomes his primary advocate, initially," the actor continued. "Their relationship is complicated. In some ways they’re quite similar but that lends itself to tensions between them. But overall he is the tutor that really brings him in."

Despite this tension, both Strange and Mordo will develop a mutual respect for each other as Strange begins to master his training in the mystic arts.  "I think it starts with Strange as the pupil. Strange is somebody who is trying to find out what all of these things are and find the secrets of these place. And I think it develops into something deeper and richer. Yes there is a camaraderie, but it’s also a kind of mutual respect as they gain an understanding of each other. And also with the problems that they face and the enemies that they face and their ability to work together to triumph or try to win means that they have a bond. I think the three of them develop this bond with the Ancient One, this mutual respect."

In the comics, it's envy of Doctor Strange and his gifts that shifts Mordo into a villain, but according to Ejiofor, if his version of Mordo were to ever turn in future films, it wouldn't be due to petty jealousy. "I don’t think of him as a kind of envious or jealous entity. I think he’s much purer than that. That’s what I mean by the comics create a slightly more two-dimensional aspect. But the place, Kamar-Taj, what it means and what it means to Mordo, is so strong and his defense of it is so deep and his loyalty is so committed–to the ideas of Kamar-Taj, to the reality of Kamar-Taj, and to the Ancient One that he would react to any perceived threat but it wouldn’t come from a place of envy but from a place of protection and loyalty."

Do you ever want to see Ejiofor's Baron Mordo become a villain, or are you happy with the decision to have him allied with Doctor Strange? Sound off below!