Benedict Wong Says His DOCTOR STRANGE Character Won't Be "The Tea-Making Manservant"

Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange movie has already experienced its fair share of controversy over the casting of Tilda Swinton as Strange's mentor, The Ancient One, but considering how much more socially conscious we've all become since the comic was originally written (we haven't solved racism or anything yet, but things have clearly improved since the '60s), there are going to have to be some major changes to the source material in order for the film to work for 2016 audiences.

One of those changes concerns the character of Wong, who in the comics serves as the valet sidekick of Stephen Strange. Benedict Wong, the actor who's portraying that character in Scott Derrickson's upcoming film, spoke with Den of Geek about the "new direction" they're taking Wong in the movie:

“I’m certainly not going to be the tea-making manservant. We’re heading in a different direction. He’s more of a drill sergeant. There isn’t any martial arts for Wong in Doctor Strange actually, he’s more of a drill sergeant to Kamar-Taj. He’s one of the masters of sorcery.”

That definitely sounds like a cool improvement. The actor doesn't hint at any appearances in future Marvel movies for the character, so I wonder if Marvel is going to kill him off in Doctor Strange. As long as his death actually means something to the other characters and serves the larger story being told, I'd be OK with that. Of course, I'd rather see him stick around for a while in more movies, so we'll have to see what happens to him when Doctor Strange hits theaters on November 4, 2016. You can see Wong playing Kublai Khan in new episodes of Netflix's Marco Polo on July 1.