February 4, 2010

Doctor Strange Coming In 2013?


When the dust settles on Avengers and Iron Man 3 Marvel Studios seems to have a few more films in mind. Ant-Man seems to be the next movie to get greenlit. The expected success of Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim should be enough to put the project in production. Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige keeps bringing up Doctor Strange as the main candidate for next lineup of features. It's not surprising since people have been trying to make a Doctor Strange movie since 1986.


At one point Guillermo del Toro (Blade 2, Hellboy) was going to direct the film but the development was put on hold for the production of the two Hobbit films. Considering the Strange film could be released in the summer of 2013 there is plenty of time for Guillmero to finish both Hobbit films before pre-production would take place in 2012. He talked to Empire about the project back in 2008.

"I talked with Neil Gaiman [about writing it]," he tells Empire. "I said, that's an interesting character because you can definitely make him more in the pulpy occult detective/magician mould and formula than was done in the Weird Tales, for example… the idea of a character that really dabbles in the occult in a way that's not X-Filey, where the supernatural is taken for granted. That's interesting… But I wouldn't use the suit!"

Del Toro enlisted the help of comic book writer and novelist Neill Gamian (Stardust, Sandman) to write the script. The last word we've heard from Gamian was back in 2008 when he talked to Premiere about his involvement. The assumption is that Gamian and del Toro could have been working together alongside Marvel to get a great script together. So that when Guillermo is finished with the Hobbit he'll be able to jump into pre-production. That's of course if Guillermo still wants to make the film there is always the possibility that another director could be hired. Neither del Toro or Gamian have officially signed on or passed on the project.

"Anyway, the point is we're probably, we may be four years away from Guillermo being free to do it, and I'm not entirely sure I'd want to do it without him. So we'll see."


Unlike Thor and Captain America, Doctor Strange is a similar B-list hero like Iron Man. So not many people know the character even exists so they'll have to cast a very well known and talented actor in the lead role. It's been rumored that Johnny Depp could take the role and it would make sense if the production didn't occur until 2012. My choices for the role include Benicio del Toro and Adrien Brody.


I expect this will be an origin story so I'm sure the characters will include Clea (Strange's love interest), The Ancient One (his mentor) and Baron Mordo (his enemy). Yet I think they could include a larger/epic story or greater threat.


I wouldn't be surprised if they used Strange's biggest villain Dormammu as the villain. He's also the current master of The Hood another interesting character.


Some likely supporting mystical heroes could include Brother Voodoo and Santana.


Other Marvel characters that could end up involved in the franchise might include Valkyrie, Enchantress and Scarlet Witch. Jon Favreau talked about using Scarlet Witch in Iron Man 2 which could mean the character is under Marvel ownership. She was an X-Men member but spent most of the time in her own comic series or apart of the Avengers. While Valkyrie is part of the world of Thor she started off human and worked with Strange in the Defenders. Enchantress seems like she would be in Thor but she's missing from the casting list plus she is heavliy into magic and is enemies with Clea/Strange. Anderson

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