Doctor Strange: 8 big questions answered

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

If you’ve seen Doctor Strange and have found yourself with a few questions about the movie, we’re here to try and answer them. Spoilers for the entire film lie below, of course…

How old was The Ancient One!?

This fact wasn’t in the film, but in the round table interviews we did director Scott Derrickson told us that she was 700 years old, so whether or not you consider that canonical, it’s certainly the number he had in his head.

Does The Ancient One getting her power from the Dark Dimension mean she was evil?

Well, that depends. Certainly, she was dishonest and probably a lot more morally grey than she presented herself, in that she drew power from Dormammu’s dimension and in doing so probably led him to Earth in the first place.

That said, she was doing what was necessary to protect the world, and much like Mordo challenging Strange’s aversion to killing, The Ancient One certainly believed some circumstances require actions we wouldn’t prefer to make.

At best, you can say she was hypocritical in using power she had forbidden others to touch because she didn’t trust them with it.

Who is Dormammu?

Like the film says, he’s a powerful being that lives in a dimension parallel to our own – the Dark Dimension. The character first appeared in Strange Tales #126, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko as Strange’s first recurring villain.

Under normal circumstances he’s pretty powerful, but of course, it turned out the good Doctor had an Infinity Stone around his neck…

Infinity Stone?

Yeah, you couldn’t really miss that reference, but in case you were visiting the conveniences, the Eye of Agamotto is, at least in the movieverse, an Infinity Stone. Pretty conclusively the Time Gem.

That brings the total number of Infinity Stones in the Marvel cinematic universe up to 5:

The Tesseract is the Space StoneThe Aether is the Reality StoneThe Orb is the Power StoneLoki’s Staff/Vision’s Gem is the Mind Stoneand the Eye of Agamotto is the Time Stone.

That leaves one more unaccounted for: the Soul Stone, most frequently wielded by Adam Warlock. Adam Warlock’s cocoon was an easter egg in the first Guardians Of The Galaxy movie, so if they’re introducing the Soul Stone anywhere ahead of Avengers: Infinity War, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 might be the place to look.

How did Strange kill that guy in his astral form?

Simple movie logic: you die in your astral form and you die in real life. As it was, it seems like the shocks from the defibrillator powered Strange up enough so that he could overload Lucian’s astral form. That might not necessarily make sense on a physical level, it does play into Derrickson’s assurance that the message of the film is that mysticism and science have to work together, something he talked about in our interview with him.

So wait. Did Strange just ‘defeat’ an all-powerful being by making a deal with him?

Yeah, he did. Hardly seems worth the paper it’s printed on, does it? Dormammu might be true to his word – after all, he knows Strange can defeat him – but at best Strange saved Earth’s behind and gave Dormammu a free pass to devour the rest of reality. Pragmatic, sure, but maybe not the best solution in the long term…

What were some of the artifacts in the film?

The Eye of Agamotto we’ve already talked about. The cloak of levitation was hard to miss. The film also mentioned the Staff of the Living Tribunal: the Living Tribunal is a vastly powerful being responsible for the multiverse, with dominion over even the highest beings like Eternity, Death and Infinity and passes judgement over the viability of everything in existance. He doesn’t have a staff in the comics, but you can bet if he did it would be pretty powerful.

Also later, Wong is seen wielding something comic nerds will recognise as the Wand of Watoomb. It allows its user to block mystical attacks, control the elements, and allow the user to remote-view.

Is Doctor Strange the Sorcerer Supreme now?

Weirdly, it seems not. He certainly holds that title in the comics, and here The Ancient One was introduced as the current one – but aside from his natural aptitude for magic (and the fact that he defeated Dormammu) it seems more like Strange and Wong are job-sharing the role, if anything, with each likely to lead one of the two remaining sanctums. Perhaps the next movie will involve him officially taking the title?

We think that’s all for now – feel free to leave us any more questions you’ve got in the comments…