DOCTOR STRANGE: Kevin Feige Talks About Casting Benedict Cumberbatch as The Sorcerer Supreme

The floodgates have opened when it comes to information about Marvel Studios' upcoming superhero film Doctor Strange, and studio president and producer Kevin Feige is giving interviews left and right and providing new bits of info about the film and how it's being created. Now he's told EW why they cast Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, despite big names like Joaquin Phoenix, Ethan Hawke, Matthew McConaughey, Ewan McGregor, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Oscar Isaac being rumored for the role at one point or another.

“[Cumberbatch] was someone that we were very interested in for a very long time. [But] he kept getting more and more popular! [Laughs] Which is not [essential] for us. Chris Pratt was not popular when we cast him in Guardians. That’s not a prerequisite needed for us casting [someone]. But he kept getting more popular, and more popular, and he kept getting busier, and busier, and it looked like the timing wasn’t going to work.” So we looked at some other actors for a while and ultimately decided, ‘We have to try and make it work with Benedict and with his schedule.’ Which is why we shifted the production schedule around. He finished Hamlet here in London, and I think had a day off, and then went to Kathmandu, Nepal, to shoot the first day of Doctor Strange.”

Cumberbatch looks like an excellent choice for the role, and I'm excited to see what he brings to the role of Stephen Strange for director Scott Derrickson. Everything I've seen and heard so far indicates that this is going to be unlike any other movie in the MCU thus far, which is cool because I'm just now starting to feel like some of these movies are beginning to feel a little too similar to each other from a visual perspective. I'm looking forward to the trippy visuals we can expect from this magic-infused story, and we'll find out how it turns out when Doctor Strange hits theaters on November 4th, 2016.