The Mystery Of Daniel Bruhl

There was much fanfare when Daniel Bruhl was announced to appear in 'Captain America: Civil War', and possibly also Scott Derrickson's 'Doctor Strange', in a villainous role. His performance in 'Rush' as Niki Lauda with Thor himself was...lauded (possibly pun there), and many were excited at the prospect of his joining the MCU. The two front-runner candidates for Bruhl's role appear to be Baron Zemo (more likely to be Helmut than Heinrich) and Baron Mordo.

However, if Bruhl is to appear in 'Doctor Strange' as well, as rumoured, then neither of those options particularly fit.

What would Baron Mordo be doing in 'Civil War'? The character would serve as an excellent choice antagonist for Strange's first movie, as their origins are closely connected, but the character has nothing to do with the Civil War story and attempting to include him would be...weird. On the other hand, Baron Zemo would make sense as he would likely be involved with Hydra and other backdoor shenanigans in the MCU, and while like Mordo he has little to do with Civil War, he would make better sense as an/the antagonist of the film due to his position as a primary antagonist of Captain America. However, he would be very out of place in 'Doctor Strange'-I recall at least one of the Zemos involving themselves with mysticism in the comic books, however as the villain of 'Doctor Strange' it would be just...strange.

What role then do I speculate Bruhl to have taken? None other than The Hood, Parker Robbins.

In the comic books, Parker was a young man enticed by a life of supervillainy, and began as a thief in order to pay his mother's medical bills. Breaking into a warehouse, Parker and his cousin discovered a demon-he shot the demon, and believing he had killed it, stole its red cloak and boots. Parker would begin wearing these items and begin to forge a large criminal empire, primarily becoming an opponent of Daredevil though he notably also became a member of Norman Osborn's villainous Cabal and clashed with the Avengers.

It was revealed later that the demon Parker had encountered, and the owner of the items he now wore, was actually Dormammu-one of Doctor Strange's principal enemies.

So why the Hood? Well, being an adversary of Daredevil (whose first Netflix series arrives in a few months) he could first appear in either that or one of the other Netflix series' in the leadup to 'The Defenders'. Primarily however, the character becomes an important behind-the-scenes player in Civil War. While the heroes are distracted fighting each other, the Hood uses the opportunity to amass a large supervillain army, and he becomes an opponent of the Avengers. While the MCU's collection of villains is relatively small (for the moment) the Netflix series' and 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' could be used to build further villains for Hood to add to his army. 

Hood's empire could become a major threat following the events of Civil War. And which character gets their film right afterwards? Oh yeah, Doctor Strange. Now there are conflicting rumours about whether the film is a 'classic origin story' or whether it skips the origin entirely, but personally I could do with the latter-a character of his power should, as he does in the comics, be available but vacant during the Civil War, choosing to sit on the sidelines. In his solo film however, he could be poised to directly deal with the Hood's threat, ultimately coming up against Dormammu. Hood could be used to ground the character a bit and make the film relevant to the story of the MCU instead of "Here's Doctor Strange to give us another character to use" or "Here's Doctor Strange to please the fanboys". He needs to be important, and not just for the purposes of setting up Infinity War.

Did I mention the Hood got ahold of the Infinity Gauntlet at one point? That's probably a stretch, but you have to appreciate the connections.

Thankyou all for reading, sound off in the comments.