'Doctor Strange' Spoilers, Release Date, Cast News: First Photo Of Benedict Cumberbatch As Doctor Strange Revealed
Benedict Cumberbatch has made his debut as Marvel's Doctor Strange in this week's issue of First Look for Entertainment Weekly. The 39-year-old British actor can be seen on the magazine's cover donning the high-collared get-up and goatee of the famous superhero from the Marvel comics co-created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko during the medium's Silver Age.
The "Doctor Strange" film, which began principal photography in November this year and will be filming until March, is set to hit theaters in November 2016.
The "Imitation Game" actor is set to portray Dr. Strange, the Marvel superhero who comes upon his powers after a car accident that propels him into a downward spiral. It would then lead him to serendipitously uncover the world of magic and alternate dimensions. What was once a self-centered doctor is transformed into a world-protecting hero.
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Apart from Cumberbatch, the "Doctor Strange" cast includes Rachel McAdams ("Sherlock Holmes"), Chiwetel Ejiofor ("The Martian"), Tilda Swinton ("The Grand Budapest Hotel"), Michael Stuhlbarg ("Steve Jobs"), and Mads Mikkelsen ("Hannibal"). According to producer and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and "Doctor Strange" executive producer Stephen Broussard, Mikkelsen is playing the role of the main villain in the film.
"Mads' character is a sorcerer who breaks off into his own sect," Feige told EW. "[He] believes that the Ancient One (played by Swinton) is just protecting her own power base and that the world may be better off if we were to allow some of these other things through," he added.
The film is in such early stages of production that Cumberbatch was still practicing getting into character during the shoot for the magazine cover. "I'm still in the infancy of learning all that," the actor told EW. He added, "It was like, okay, I've got to keep throwing these poses, these spells, these rune-casting things, everything he does physically."
"Doctor Strange" is scheduled to be released in IMAX theaters on Nov. 4, 2016.
