Picture this: you're settling in for another Marvel movie night, expecting the usual punches, quips, and cosmic explosions. Instead, you're plunged into a reality where your own dreams become the battlefield, where the laws of physics bend to someone else's twisted imagination, and where Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange faces his most psychologically terrifying opponent yet.


That movie almost happened. And according to screenwriter C. Robert Cargill, it would have been absolutely incredible.

Speaking with The Direct at Fantastic Fest's red carpet premiere, Cargill pulled back the curtain on one of the MCU's most intriguing "what ifs" – the plan to make Nightmare, Marvel's master of dreams, the primary antagonist of the first Doctor Strange film. While we ultimately got the dimension-devouring Dormammu and Mads Mikkelsen's zealous Kaecilius, the original vision painted by Cargill and director Scott Derrickson sounds like it could have fundamentally changed how we think about superhero cinema.

"We wanted to have Nightmare be the villain of the first movie," Cargill revealed. Marvel Studios loved the concept, but executives felt the dream-realm ruler was "more of a second movie character." Think about that for a moment – instead of learning magic through ancient texts and mirror dimensions, Stephen Strange's introduction to the mystical arts could have involved battling an entity that controls the very space where you're most vulnerable: your sleeping mind.

The implications are staggering. Every person on Earth dreams, making Nightmare a villain whose reach extends into your bedroom, your subconscious, your most private mental space. Unlike Thanos snapping away half the universe or Loki conquering cities, this would be a threat that literally follows you home, into the most intimate corners of your psyche.

Cargill described their abandoned sequel vision as "playing around with alternate realities and dream logic" – territory that would have seen Doctor Strange "having to do battle with this guy who is the master of dreams, and the reality is his whims." For audiences, this translates to experiencing a Marvel film where traditional storytelling rules don't apply, where cause and effect operate on the fluid, often nonsensical principles that govern our sleeping minds.


Consider what this means for your movie-watching experience. Instead of the structured hero's journey we've come to expect, viewers would navigate a narrative that shifts like a fever dream, where Strange might find himself falling through infinite libraries, fighting duplicates of himself, or discovering that his hands – those precious surgeon's hands – have become something entirely alien. The film itself would mirror the disorienting, emotionally charged landscape of actual dreams.

The technical challenges alone would have pushed filmmaking boundaries. Dream sequences typically last minutes in movies; Cargill and Derrickson envisioned an entire film operating on dream logic. This means practical effects teams creating impossible geometries, CGI artists rendering realities that defy physics, and editors crafting transitions that feel simultaneously jarring and inevitable – exactly like real dreams.

For Benedict Cumberbatch, this would have required a completely different performance approach. Rather than the calculated, intellectual Strange we know, he'd be portraying a character struggling to maintain rational thought in an irrational realm, fighting an enemy who could rewrite the rules of engagement at will. Imagine Strange attempting to perform precise magical gestures while Nightmare transforms his hands into spiders, or trying to recite incantations while his voice becomes someone else's entirely.

The broader MCU implications are fascinating. A Nightmare-centered Doctor Strange would have established the franchise's supernatural corner as genuinely otherworldly from the start, rather than gradually building toward cosmic weirdness. This could have influenced how audiences received later entries like Thor: Ragnarok's psychedelic sequences or Eternals' reality-bending concepts.

But creative differences led Scott Derrickson to part ways with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in early 2020, taking the Nightmare vision with him. Replacement writer Michael Waldron explained that Marvel ultimately sought a "multiversal adversary" for the sequel, leading to Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch taking the primary antagonist role.

Here's what this means for you as a Marvel fan: you missed experiencing a completely different kind of superhero storytelling. Instead of external threats requiring physical solutions, Nightmare represents internal, psychological challenges that can't be punched into submission. This villain forces heroes – and by extension, audiences – to confront fears, traumas, and aspects of identity that exist beneath conscious awareness.

Cargill remains enthusiastic about the possibility, stating he'd "love to go back and write a Nightmare script" for Marvel. Given that Nightmare was considered for both Doctor Strange films at various development stages, his eventual MCU appearance feels inevitable rather than unlikely.

The timing could be perfect. After two films establishing Strange's magical credentials and multiversal awareness, a third entry focused on dream-realm adventures would offer something genuinely fresh. Consider your own relationship with sleep and dreams – they occupy roughly one-third of your life, yet remain largely mysterious and uncontrollable. A Nightmare-centered film would explore this universal human experience through the lens of supernatural adventure.

The character's comic book history provides rich material. As ruler of the Dream Dimension, Nightmare feeds on human fears and can trap people in eternal sleep, experiencing endless nightmares. For Strange, who already operates in realms beyond normal human perception, this represents a uniquely challenging opponent – one who attacks through vulnerability rather than raw power.

Recent MCU developments support this possibility. Doctor Strange's mysterious exit with Clea at Multiverse of Madness' end was widely interpreted as setting up multiversal adventures, but what if Clea arrived seeking help against Nightmare? The Dream Dimension exists parallel to our reality, technically making it another form of alternate universe – one where Strange's particular skill set would prove essential.

For Marvel Studios, Nightmare offers something current MCU entries lack: genuine horror elements that don't require R-ratings or excessive violence. The fear comes from existential uncertainty, from questioning what's real, from confronting aspects of yourself you'd prefer to ignore. This psychological approach could attract audiences seeking more mature themes without alienating younger viewers.

The broader cultural timing feels right too. In an era where mental health conversations dominate social media, where sleep disorders affect millions, and where people increasingly struggle to distinguish reality from digital manipulation, a villain who weaponizes dreams and psychological vulnerability resonates with contemporary anxieties.

Whether Nightmare appears in a potential Doctor Strange 3, upcoming Avengers films, or an entirely different MCU project remains unknown. But Cargill's revelations remind us that behind every superhero film lies a dozen untold stories, alternate visions that could have fundamentally altered our relationship with these characters and their world.

Sometimes the most compelling adventures are the ones that exist only in our dreams – or in this case, the ones that almost made it to the screen.

Source: The Direct