Artist Jerad S. Marantz has released some concept drawings of the Doctor Strange villain Dormammu, which gave the interdimensional villain both a much more human and a more cosmic feel.
"Always liked this version," said Marantz on Instagram, where he posted the images. "At this point we were playing around with more human options," he explained. The Marvel baddie was ultimately rendered as a substantially more ethereal, inhuman being.
Dormammu went head-to-head with Strange in his 2016 film and was eventually bested by the Master of the Mystic Arts. The Dark Dimension ruler is much larger than Strange in the movie, but not as large as he is depicted in the image, judging by the planets that can be seen caught in the cosmic being's fiery crown.
Marantz has uploaded a number of conceptual art pieces for Doctor Strange on social media. These range from the recently posted Dormammu to images featuring different versions of Strange himself — some similar to the character's classic comic book design and others closer to the MCU version. Marantz said the images were for "a canceled project."
Doctor Strange is set to return in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen. The film is currently scheduled to hit theaters May 7, 2021.