Benedict Cumberbatch is currently filming Sherlock Season 4 in England, but he still “appeared” on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night to drop the new, first trailer for Doctor Strange. They literally just wrapped the film two weekends ago in New York, but still… Marvel likes to stoke the fan-boys. First, here’s Benedict Strange talking about whether Doctor Strange is a magician who appears at children’s birthday parties.
And in case you didn’t want to watch that, here’s the trailer:
While I still have some of my Cumberbcrush, I’m not the crazy Cumberbitch I once was. But this still got me hyped for the film. Marvel is betting a lot on Benedict Strange, and I feel like he might pull it off. Unlike Batman and Spiderman – whose origin-stories we can recite by memory because they’re redone so often – I feel like most people don’t know much about Doctor Strange. So Marvel just did a traditional first-film origin story, with some heavy influences from Christopher Nolan’s Inception (right?).
Tilda Swinton’s bald Ancient One looks great, I’m loving Chiwetel’s voice, and we even get a glimpse of Rachel McAdams’ character as some kind of ER doctor, possibly Benedict Strange’s love interest. According to Kevin Feige, McAdams plays “a fellow surgeon that has a history with Strange and is his sort of lynchpin to his old life, once he steps into he role of a sorcerer. She is someone he connects with at the beginning, and reconnects with, and helps anchor his humanity.” Can I admit that I think McAdams and Cumberbatch would look nice together on-screen?
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, Marvel.
Tilda! That is all.
I’m there for this. It looks great and they were smart enough to cast some real acting talent, rather than just some wooden muscles (looking at you, Thor).
Well, at least they tried to compensate a little for Thor by casting Hiddleston.
And Stellan Skarsgaard.
I love Stellan.
They did right with Hopkins til he started phoning it in.
I have to applaud the Marvel staff for making these incredible trailers, Civil War & Doctor Strange look really good. I had no idea how I was going to feel about Doctor Strange but I just have to make space in my superhero watchlist for Doctor Strange. I hope no one is expecting any gifts from me because I will be poor for the holidays, thanks to Doctor Strange, Fantastic Beasts & Rogue One.
Stellan is the spicy marinade that makes Tofu Hemsworth palatable as Thor. I have read a lot of reviews from comic bros who don’t get why Stellan keeps getting cast in Marvel movies. Well, because he’s awesome and when he’s not there it feels like Marvel is cooking without salt.
Stellan himself has explained that he is there for exposition. He’s the Scandanavian science guy who explains both astrophysics and Norse mythology.
Stellan is awesome. Erik’s friendship with Thor is something I enjoy greatly about the movies. And I like that they throw in his pixelated balls for exposition too 🙂
Al I hear in his accent is him sounding like Hugh Laurie in House but failing.
Visually it looks stunning but I dont know if it’s a little too serious for my taste. I prefer the ones that acknowledge their ridiculousness. Deadpool had it bang on, even AntMan had elements of it
huh?.. but BC is english.. how is he failing at his own natural accent?…
Did you watch the trailer? He’s doing an American accent….
IDK. If I had to choose one I’d pick straight up, impassioned fantasy over humorous, self mocking fantasy. Unless it’s too dark and depressing like Nolan’s Batman movies, then it’s just a drag.
@Kaiser I am with you I am not the same either but it does look good. Love Tilda I will see it if my son wants to but otherwise on a long haul flight 🙂
Love it!
The Matrix meets Inception plus Tilda. Can’t wait!
Exactley! I’m super into it
Was thinking the same thing. This looks to be far better than Inception and with BC, Tilda, Chiwetel and Rachel M. has a more intriguing cast than both.
I was thinking more Matrix meets Equilibrium.
Why is Tilda playing a character that was supposed to be born in Tibet? I mean, they couldn’t they have gotten an Asian actress to play the Ancient One so that they could have their gender swap without erasing an Asian role? Idk, this is giving my Avatar: The Last Airbender feels with the obvious use of Asian culture but the eraser of the people. As for the rest of it it looks interesting and Ben’s accent sounds pretty solid.
They want big money from the Chinese fan base, hence no character from Tibet.
That’s so lame. Besides they could have had a non-Tibetan Asian actress play the role. Not saying all Asians are interchangeable, just that they didn’t have to go straight to white casting.
It is very, very lame and I hope they get plenty of shit for it. Love Tilda of course, but I am wondering if they will even say “Tibet.”
I think Marvel is smart to go a whole other direction with Tilda who was born in Australia. If you cannot hire an old Tibetan man to play the role as the comic book character was written in the non-PC days of 1963, then go another way completely.
The original character from the comic books was apparently a lurid, mysterious “oriental villain”. They wanted to move away from that racist stereotype as well. Not sure if I agree with their casting choice or not, though.
I hear what you’re saying. But it’s hard to beat what Tilda brings to the table. One she’s established, internationally recognizable and has a sick amount of gravitas and charisma she brings to the screen. So in this case I think it made good dramatic and economic sense to cast her over any other actor Asian or not.
But the same logic did not apply when they handed the Iron Man role to RDJ, whose career had been stalling at that time (so he was risky) and it applied even less when they cast an unknown Aussie soap actor to play Thor (remember the press mocking Marvel for their casting choice?). And they cast a Black actor to play T’Challa so I just wonder, why was it possible there and not here? There are ways to depict an Asian character in a captivating way without falling prey to racist stereotypes.
@Mewsie
Even when RDJ’s career was stalling, he was still very well known because he’s a long established American actor with a very public, tawdry backstory. True it was still a risk to cast him as Iron Man, but RDJ at that time also had good connections like Jon Favreau who fought for him to get the part. Plus he signed on to the role at a very good price which is probably what made it worth the risk for Marvel. With the low cost of RDJ they got both him and a happy, hot shot director.
As far as Chris Hemsworth again it’s about striking the balance between actors that will fit the part and the price that actor comes with. Established, popular actors cost a whole lot more than very talented unknowns. Marvel has put a lot of popular American actors in their movies and even if it’s for a minor role that Alist actor costs $. So when they can or when they think they can take a risk on a less known, up ‘n comer, and because a role like Thor requires someone who can really embody the part and sell it.
It’s understandable to question Tilda’s casting even though she’s a huge draw. Big actors bump off little actors all the time in Hollywood and that’s among white male actors too. No it’s not completely fair, but casting a woman in this part is still tremendous progress as far as HW goes.
Not here for Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One. At all. I know it’s a trope but it was also a rare shoo in for an Asian actor/actress. Or it should have been. And they will claim they’re subverting the trope by their casting. Really? Well, why didn’t they subvert the blue-eyed blond All American Hero trope of Captain America, then? Smh.
In a trailer packed with overt Asian borrowings and codas there’s not a single Asian character. Platitudes about diversity abound in Hollywood and yet not a single move forward, even in a film in which a partially Asian cast would be a natural fit. I know Benedict Wong is in this, as the perennial Asian side-kick, but I still feel there is some major mis-steps with the casting.
this.
Precisely.
Well to be fair to Marvel, it’s most likely because a couple of Asians (Chines political higher-ups) wouldn’t like the Tibetan character thing. So Tilda’s casting is evidence not that they’re racist but that they’re greedy for $$.
True, but as they seem to be drawing Tibet in pretty broad strokes they could always have gone for a sort of pan-Asian feel and still cast an Asian actor/actress, instead of the “white person in exotic locale does things better than the locals” mish-mash they’ve got going on here. But it is a fair point.
That makes it even worse in my eyes, they went for the $$ instead of taking a stand. Their films have already made a bajillion dollars so it’s not like pissing off the Chinese Govt on this one would have been risky.
Movie’s based on a comic book. No one is THAT person.
Really? In Hollywood colorblind casting only goes one way. Seems like they stick to the basic formula (cast-’em-as-they’re-drawn) for all other comic book adaptations. A weak argument.
I like Tilda as an actress. But not for this. And she’s not wanting for featured roles like many Asian and Asian descent actors in Hollywood are.
Ji-yun, +1,000
The Ancient One in the comics was a man. Nick Fury was a white guy. It goes both ways. Are you mad Henry Cavill is not from Kyrpton? Are you furious they didn’t cast a real Asgardian as Thor? Could you be more angry that Gal Godot is not a Themysciran actress? Of course not. It’s fantasy. Not some it – ALL of it. Meryl Streep gets cast as Chairman Mao- I hear you. This, Dr. Strange, the Ancient One, is just make believe folks. If you want, let’s get Stan Lee to change it.
@browniecakes So according to this logic, Asia is an imaginary realm like Asgard and Krypton? O_O
Mewsie – Tibet. And everyone here so far agrees we cannot use an actor from Tibet or the Chinese audience is lost. The whole movie is set in an imaginary realm. Not one thing has to be true to life in a Marvel movie they are based on a comic book for entertainment purposes.
so glad someone said it. this is getting old.
I had no idea the Ancient One was human and Asian. I didn’t read the comic books but if the character is Asian they could have cast appropriately. 🙁 It’s not that hard, there are tons of gorgeous and talented Asian actors, if they didn’t want to cast exactly a Tibetan one so as not to upset the Chinese government. Sad.
Comic book character. Don’t be sad. Not based on any real Tibetan person.
As I said up thread, Tilda is a huge draw. BC and Chewy are great but Tilda seals the deal with this casting ensemble.
I agree with you that Asians are grossly underrepresented like Latinos are, but I don’t think that will be for long. The Asian film industry and market are seriously major players now. They are set to cash in bigger profits than US films can and may even cut into US studio profits. Chinese film industry bought Legendary last year so they will have control and influence in a portion of US films. I think we’ll start to see some progress with more Asians in US films in the next coming years. And it will probably be a quicker and more stable progress than what women, Blacks and most definitely Latinos have been able to accomplish over the past 80 yrs.
Completely agree. This could have been a great opportunity for a fresh look at the troupe and a way to use Asian actor. Asian actors really don’t have a lot of visibility in these types of films and that sucks. One awesome thing about Fast & Furious was the prominent use of an Asian character who was just cool.
He’s visually perfect for the role and has the talent to pull it off so i think it will be a success for him and Marvel. They got the talent for it to do well. But it will be interesting to see how he handles the crazy Marvel marketing machine.
Totally agree. This looks like it will rocket him to the top of the Marvel characters replacing RDJ and Hiddleston as the kings of Marvel/Comic Con. He’s been to Comic Con at least once with Star Trek and he’s seen what Hiddleston has had to deal with so he must be pretty well prepared, maybe.
IDK what happens when you add the Cumber fandoms to the Marvel and Comic Con fandom? We could have a melt down on our hands.
Wohooooooo. This looks amaaaazing. Bring on Strange. Hopefully this Deadpool talk will stop now. Yes the movie was funny but geez get over it….
I know people are sick of comic book movies (to each’s own) but I AM HERE FOR THIS! I’ve adored Dr. Strange since I was 10.
I had no interest in all in this one, but that trailer actually looks good.
+1
I’m over him.
You don’t like his acting?
Not really feeling this trailer tho there are a couple of shots that look absolutely amazing. But since they’ve only finished filming a couple of weeks ago it’s understandable that they don’t have much of the effects done, so I’ll reserve judgement for the second trailer.
My grandson and I will be there, yeah.
I think it looks really good and I love the cast, but a small part of me can’t help but imagine it with Joaquin Phoenix who is my all-time favorite actor (alongside Leonardo DiCaprio). I think he would have killed the role (and looked better together with Rachel IMO). But Benedict is talented too so I’ll absolutely watch this in november!
I love Joaquin but he’s never been that strong in highly characterized or fantasy roles where you have to wear makeup and outrageous costumes that actually require a lot of physicality. Joaquin is excellent at morphing into extreme, realism genre characters, but Benedict is younger and much more physically prepared and trained to embody this type fantasy role at this point.
Inception meets Batman Begins…weird.
I think it’s more like Inception meets the Matrix.
The visuals fit with Doctor Strange, he does some pretty trippy things in the comics like traveling to other dimensions, pocket universes and shadow realms. There’s always been a psychedelic vibe to his comic.
I can’t wait to see Benedict and Rachel acting together. Back before Sophie came along I always kind of wished he and Rachel would meet and fall for each other. They would have been the cutest couple.
You know, I think a huge part of his success as an actor is his ability to buy into a role. There’s something inherently stupid about a magic doctor superhero who can ethereally project and bear witness to alternate dimensions. But it doesn’t seem silly when Cumberbatch is in the role. It’s a knack for respecting the character, I think. And makes it okay to buy into what you’re seeing as part of the audience. I think it’s why people keep grouping Cumberbatch and Hiddleston together… because they both do it well. And Hiddleston’s sort of handsomer but Cumberbatch manages to do it without being a dork about it.
Yes. It’s about sincerity to the role, any role. And of course the talent to pull it off.
Sincerity + talent overrides looks, but looks makes for nice icing.
Until I saw the trailer I was thinking he was playing Dr Strangelove and they were remaking that movie (clearly not paying attention).
Looks great, and I think he and Marvel are a great fit. He will totally play ball selling this movie (hoping they get him some PR training though because his quotes are generally… Laboured and tortuous, but he means well.)
I am looking forward to it. Never read the comic or any comics for that matter, and don’t care for Batman and Spider-Man, but I like the other superhero stuff. Curious about Rachel’s role, it would be nice to see a strong female character in an otherwise testosterone fuelled movie.
To digress for a second: two of my new favourite shows this year are Lucifer (based on Gaiman’s comic) and the DC Legends of Tomorrow. Hubby recently started watching Arrow, I haven’t, but he likes it a lot. I am more into GoT and finally, the second season of 12 Monkeys is back, glory be😍
Lucifer is really really good. It started off lightly but it got darker and deeper towards the end of season 1 and I just love it. And the only characters I can’t stand are Amenadiel and his undead minion. Ugh to those two. But I knew from Supernatural that angels are A-holes.
Right! Amenadiel is such a righteous holier than thou type – but I guess that makes sense! We’ll see what happens now after his recent Maze encounter, I did not see that one coming!
Looking forward to this.
Doctor Strange was a cornerstone of my childhood, so I am looking forward to this. It looks good. I am also very glad that they have not brought in Clea as a love interest (that was a very sexist subplot) and changed the Night Nurse character (another love interest) to what appears to be a Doctor. Good update.
They may add her later on if the film does well.
If they do, I am pretty sure they will leave her old storyline behind and emphasize he role in saving her realm from the dreaded Dorammamu.
I don’t think Rachel is playing Night Nurse, she’s played by Rosario Dawson on the Netflix shows and they are part of the MCU. Her character description is a fellow surgeon.
I thought the trailer was super exciting and I loved the few glimpses of Tilda as the Ancient One. The scenes between Tilda and Benedict reminded me of the simulated dojo fight scenes from the Matrix between Morpheus and Neo. But visually it is a feast. Can’t wait!
The trailer looks good and something even my parents will go see. They can’t stand the usual marvel wisecrack every few minutes films
So excited for this one! I know nothing of this superhero and I’m gonna keep it that way until I see the movie so I’ll be totally surprised. Benedict looks fantastic in this part.
I am in the same boat, only I am still not coming to terms with Benedict being cast.
He’s good. Really good. But I am a Forever Cumberqut, so…also he looks a bit like Richard Chamberlain.
Yes, that’s it, Richard Chamberlain.
Maybe they’ll let him use the same makeup to do a remake of Shogun.
I am so here for Marvel Inception (with special guest Casual Racism). I know that there will be upset about it and it is very upsetting that this is still happening in films but I really think Strange will be good otherwise.
The trailer looks great and I’m sure the movie will do great at the box office! I’ll definetely watch it!
Wow! He looks really different with a beard/goatee. I have never thought this man was remotely attractive but now? Little bit!! I must really like the bad boy look. I’m disgusted with myself.
Oddly, he looks more human as a magical being than he ever has before. He should keep that goatee. It de-lizards him.
Wow. So this is what Dr. Strange is. Looks great! I’m definitely going to watch it and not just for Benny.
It looks dumb. And that guy Cumberthing is so badly miscast that I have no desire to see this movie at all. It’s a shame because normally this kind of story would interest me, but this person is such a turn off to me I won’t bother ever seeing it.
So who exactly would have been better casting for this role??
Yay x 1000! I am all in for this movie
He is super hot as Dr. Strange I’m going to watch this on IMAX. A lot of people here don’t like him but my love for him gets stronger everyday. Man he looks damn hot!!!
I finally saw this at home and it looks GOOD. It’s also the first time his standard american accents sounds authentic, so kudos on that front.
I’m still torn about Tilda – I love her, but hate the character was white washed.
I’m never gonna listen to Cumberbatch with an US accent. Don’t like it (him speaking it, I mean), don’t wanna hear it. Aside from that, the last thing he did that interested me besides Sherlock was Parade’s End.
Plus he’s already insufferable, now he’ll become even more so.
But yeah, I love Tilda in any guise, so there’s that.
Hmmm….OK! But why is he dressed like Ming the Merciless.
I will NEVER understand the attraction so many seem to have to this one.
Never ever.