As the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown and expanded, it's become less afraid to throw some of the stranger aspects of the comics at us. Back when IRON MAN was released in 2008, who could have imagined that we'd be thrilled with the adventures of a talking racoon and a giant walking tree just six years later. According to Mads Mikkelsen while speaking with Yahoo Movies UK, the upcoming DOCTOR STRANGE will represent another leap forward in regards to bringing a different flavour to the MCU.
If you look at the comic books, the comic books are quite different [to other Marvel stories]. I think that the film will be different from the other [Marvel] films that we’ve seen, but not as different as the books are, because that was basically the ‘60s and ‘70s – it was more like an acid trip. We’ve taken that fascination of the time into something we can relate to today, so you still have the energy, you still have the colours, you still have the madness, but you also have something you can identify with. I think that was a necessity – if not, you would just make a crazy film. But you still have it there – you have all the action, all the good ingredients you get in a Marvel film, but it will have a different flavour, that’s for sure.
We don't know too much about Mads Mikkelsen's character quite yet, other than he has broken away from The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) in order to form his own magicial sect, but if you ask Mikkelsen, he doesn't believe himself to be a straight up villain.
He’s not a villain in that way – he’s a man who believes in something else than the hero. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t want to make the planet look wonderful or he wants to save the world as well, but he has a different way of doing it. He is the antagonist, of course, but he’s not necessarily wrong.
DOCTOR STRANGE is set for a November 4, 2016 release.