The Major MCU Character Saved From The Chopping Block In Doctor Strange 2

When it comes to superhero deaths, Sam Raimi's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" served up some of Marvel's most gruesome and unexpected slayings to date, with most coming courtesy of Elizabeth Olsen's ruthless Scarlet Witch. Throughout "Multiverse of Madness," we not only see some of Marvel's most beloved heroes get taken out — they are outright decimated. Major names like Reed Richards (John Krasinski), Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), Black Bolt (Ansel Mount), Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell), Captain Marvel (Lashana Lynch), and a huge number of Masters of the Mystic Arts, just to name a few, are utterly obliterated by chaos magic.

However, what viewers may not know about the movie is that there was actually one more iconic name that was nearly killed off by the now evil Wanda Maximoff — one of whom only barely made it out of the writer's room in one piece. Their survival is documented in the now-available "Multiverse of Madness" digital film commentary, and what makes the near-deaths of this character even more shocking is that the casualty wasn't going to be a variant from another universe, but rather, a major figure from our very own Earth 616.

According to the filmmakers, discussions about killing off Earth 616's Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) took place during production of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" — with his death reportedly being written into the script and featured at the very beginning of the movie. 

"Michael had written an early scene with Chiwetel where we saw him in our universe, 616, where he was the Mordo that we knew from 'Doctor Strange 1,'" Sam Raimi recalls in the "Multiverse of Madness" commentary (per Insider). "Only he had been through many battles since that. He had a limp, and he was coming after the Scarlet Witch to take her power because he knew she was dark and terribly corrupted by the Darkhold." 

According to Raimi, the writing team had Earth 616 Mordo going out in the grisliest way possible — that is, Wanda cut off his head. Later in the movie, there would've been a moment where she showed this decapitated head to Strange. The "Evil Dead" mastermind ultimately wanted to keep the scene in, but just couldn't do it because of time constraints. "It was really great writing, but it slowed the beginning down too much and we had to lose it," Raimi said. 

Originally, two other major deaths were discussed for the "Doctor Strange" sequel — including one that actually got written in. 

According to writer Michael Waldron, the popular Marvel characters Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) and Wong (Benedict Wong) were both apparently on death's doorstep at one point during the production of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." The writers, however, ultimately agreed to let the MCU heroes live — but not without having a little fun at first.

"I remember, Sam [Raimi], you pitching him the story and making him, Benny Wong, believe for a second that he was actually gonna to die in that moment," explains producer Richie Palmer during the "Multiverse of Madness" commentary with Raimi (via Insider). "You said, I remember... 'I'm really sorry to tell you that's it for Wong.' And then he didn't know yet whether or not you were the jokester that you are." 

As for Lilly's Wasp character from the "Ant-Man" franchise, she was initially slated to be an Illuminati member on Earth-838, with her death coming courtesy of a simple clap from Maximoff. 

"The Wasp shrunk down and flew at Wanda," Waldron says, in the extra features. "And she just clapped her hands and smushed the Wasp in the first draft."