Doctor Strange will keep the "madness" of the comic books says Mads Mikkelsen

Now that Captain America: Civil War has officially kicked off phase three of the MCU, attention is shifting to Marvel's other 2016 release - Doctor Strange. The first trailer for the film kept its cards pretty close to the chest, so much so that we still don't know which villain Mads Mikkelsen is playing.

Mikkelsen remained tight-lipped on that precious bit of info while speaking to Yahoo! Movies, but he did give a little more insight into what motivates his character: "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".

Mikkelsen also offered his thoughts on why Doctor Strange could be Marvel's most unique film yet; "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", Mikkelsen continued. "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".

Some of the imagery in Doctor Strange's first trailer could certainly be classified as "a different flavour" for the MCU - although, as the internet was quick to point out, not so much for those who have watched Inception - and that's no bad thing. We'll find out just how different it is in October.

Directed by Scott Derickson and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tilda Swinton, Rachel McAdams, Michael Stuhlbarg and Mads Mikkelsen, Doctor Strange is released in UK cinemas on October 28, 2016 before opening in US theatres on November 4, 2016.

Images: Marvel

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.