Despite not being a well known character to the mainstream movie going audience, Doctor Strange continued the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and attracted largely positive reviews while also performing well at the box office. The movie featured standout performances from Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton and Chiwetel Ejiofor in the central roles and opened up the franchise to a world of magic and mysticism.

By far the most celebrated elements of Doctor Strange however, were the amazingly trippy visuals, from the climactic multiverse scene to the Inception-esque city bending. The movie’s effects were second to none and it’s little surprise that the VFX department have been nominated for big prizes by several different associations this awards season. Praise was also aimed at the design of Mads Mikkelsen’s villainous Kaecilius, whose cosmic-hangover eyes gave the character a distinct and striking look.

With Doctor Strange seeing a digital home release today (February 14th), Marvel Studios has released a batch of concept designs for Mikkelsen’s character that show a variety of different looks for the villain. The artwork was drawn by artists Ryan Lang, Josh Nizzi, Jack Dudman and Ryan Meinerding and show alternate designs for Kaecilius and his companions.

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[vn_gallery name=“Doctor Strange Movie Concept Art – Kaecilius” id=“901922”]

Whilst some of the designs appear fairly close to the finished product, others represent quite a departure. The black robes and blue goo image for instance, give the character a far more sinister edge, perhaps taking away some of the humanity he ended up having in the final film. Meanwhile, the purple robed image featuring Mikkelsen’s likeness shows that throughout the creative process, there was a focus on making the villain’s eyes his most striking feature.

All of the alternate designs are highly interesting and the artwork is nothing less than absolutely stunning, though many Doctor Strange fans will likely feel that director Scott Derrickson and his team made the right call when it came to selecting Kaecilius’ final appearance. Although other designs may have been more striking or menacing, the character’s ultimate look helped cement his origin story whilst also showing that he had lost his way and subsequently provided a visual warning to Strange about the temptations of power.

With that said, there is perhaps one concept design among the selection that could have been interesting to see play out on the big screen: Ryan Lang’s cosmic-robes entry. The image’s black eye design and galaxy-themed clothing have a certain aesthetic appeal that would’ve countered Strange’s red-cape and big collar look nicely. It also would’ve been interesting to see robes with a constantly-moving design brought to life on the big screen.

Source: Marvel (via Comic Book)

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