With production on Marvel‘s upcoming superhero film “Doctor Strange” currently underway, it’s only apt for an official photo or a teaser from the film to emerge online.
Well, lo and behold, “Sherlock” star Benedict Cumberbatch finally made his debut as the Sorcerer Supreme on the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s “First Look” issue.
“Doctor Strange”, which is one of the highly anticipated movies in the 3rd phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), is being directed by Scott Derrickson (of “Sinister” and “Deliver Us From Evil” fame) based on a screenplay by “The Mummy” reboot scribe Jon Spaihts (of “Prometheus” fame).
Cumberbatch was confirmed to have joined the film as Doctor Stephen Strange aka the Sorcerer Supreme back in December 2014. But before he was cast, “Her” star Joaquin Phoenix was Marvel’s top choice to play the role. However, the negotiations fell apart and the casting was back to square one. At the time, “Matrix” actor Keanu Reeves and Jared Leto were rumoured to take up the lead role.
After much deliberation, Marvel eventually cast Cumberbatch, with its president Kevin Feige explaining that “Stephen Strange’s story requires an actor capable of great depth and sincerity”. Feige and Derrickson further revealed in a recent featurette that “Benedict has got an incredibly complicated emotional structure going on”, making him the perfect actor to portray the role.
Since the film will introduce the “mind-trippy” supernatural side of the Marvel Universe, the new photos which exclusively debuted on EW couldn’t have come at a more perfect time as we were offered a glimpse at Strange’s spell-casting magic in the movie.
EW’s cover shoot with Cumberbatch was one of the very first times the British actor has put on his character’s costume. He told EW that he used the shoot as “something of a research-and-development session for the gesticulations” that defines his character’s spell-casting in the comics.
He said:
I’m still in the infancy of learning all that. It was like, okay, I’ve got to keep throwing these poses, these spells, these rune-casting things, everything he does physically.
“I’m thinking, there’s going to be a huge amount of speculation and intrigue over the positioning of that finger as opposed to it being there, or there. And I’m still working on that. We haven’t played any of those scenes yet,” he further explained. “I felt really self-conscious. But, then, by the end, it was great. It’s like anything, you just have to experiment.”
Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” will follow the story of Doctor Stephen Strange, a cocky neurosurgeon who discovers the hidden world of magic and alternate dimensions after a horrific car accident.
Tilda Swinton is attached to play The Ancient One while Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the good doctor’s arch foe, Baron Mordo. Michael Stuhlbarg and Scott Adkins are starring in it as well, but details regarding their roles are undisclosed. Rachel McAdams and “Hannibal” star Mads Mikkelsen will apparently play major roles in the film, with EW revealing that more details regarding the pair’s identities will be featured on their cover story.
Principal photography took place in Kathmandu, Nepal last month and filming will continue to take place in few other locations around the world, including London, New York, and Hong Kong.
Take a look at the rest of the exclusive photos of the movie in the gallery below:
Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” will wrap filming in March next year before its official release on 4th November 2016.
