With rumors swirling over Marvel's mystery press event tomorrow, today brings some pretty big news on their hunt to find an actor to be their Doctor Strange. Deadline reports that fan-favorite actor Benedict Cumberbatch is close to inking a deal to star in the film, expected to be a major part of the studio's Phase Three plans.
Cumberbatch was just one of numerous names that had been rumored for the role, along with Joaquin Phoenix, Jared Leto, Tom Hardy, Colin Farrell, and many more. It's not Cumberbatch's first franchise, as he voices the dragon Smaug in The Hobbit movies and starred as Khan in Star Trek into Darkness, but it's the first to truly be his own. And all of this comes at a time when he's seriously being considered as a Best Actor candidate for his role as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game.
In the comics, Dr. Stephen Strange was an arrogant neurosurgeon who lost everything when his hands were crippled. At the lowest point in his life, Strange encounters the Ancient One who teaches him the ways of mysticism, eventually gaining the power to become the "Sorcerer Supreme". Doctor Strange will be directed by Scott Derrickson and is expected to open in 2016, possibly on July 8th although that has yet to be confirmed.
