DOCTOR STRANGE Origin Story Confirmed; Details on Rachel McAdams' Role
Doctor Strange will finally start production this November, and today we have learned some new details about the Scott Derrickson-directed Marvel project. IGN had the opportunity to talk to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently, and they asked him some questions about the film. One of the big things that he revealed was that Doctor Strange would, in fact, give us an origin story. It was rumored early on that this might not be the case, but this is what Feige had to say about it:
"For some reason people sometimes talked about how we're not doing an origin story, we're bored of origin stories. I think people are bored of origin stories they've seen before or origin stories that are overly familiar. Doctor Strange has one of the best, most classic, most unique origin stories of any hero we have, so why wouldn't we do that? That was sort of always the plan. How you tell that origin, perhaps there are ways to twist it or play with that, but for the most part, it's a gift when the comics have something with such clarity of story and of character. That doesn't always happen in the comics, and when it does, you use it."
It was also recently announced that Rachel McAdams had been cast in the lead female role in the film. We have yet to learn who exactly she'll be playing, but she will have a big role in the story. Feige explains:
"She plays a very, very big part in the movie and represents a certain point of view of the worlds that we experience in that movie, but Doctor Strange, without a doubt, is the character we follow through the movie."
The conversation then moved on to Tilda Swinton's The Ancient One, and whether or not she will be a man or a woman in the film. There's been some speculation about this in the past, and when asked about it in the interview Feige said:
"We get an amazing actress to play an amazing character, and do it in a way that's very unique and doesn't fall into any outdated stereotypes that sometimes pop up in the comics from years past. It's funny you ask 'Will Tilda Swinton be playing a woman?' and you ask it because she does an amazing job of being sort of ambiguous in terms of gender. I think you'll see us playing it in ways that she's played other characters that way. Clearly she's a woman, but it is very ambiguous in her portrayal."
So that pretty much answers that question. It's going to be interesting to see how all of these characters will actually be portrayed in the film. I loved the concept art that I saw for it at D23, and I'm excited to see more of their vision for this character.
Benedict Cumberbatch is set to play Stephen Strange, and the movie is set to be released in theaters on November 4th, 2016.