doctor strange

...With a pretty strong exception. The Song of Ice and Fire author has always been a Marvel nerd, and recently told MTV Geek that he would love to write Doctor Strange comics -- but it can't be rebooted or retconned.

I would have to have my lawyers to meet with Marvel's lawyers and work out an absolutely iron-clad contract that would say whatever I did in the story would continue to be canon forever, and would never be retconned, rebooted or reimagined out of the universe when some later writer decided to mess around with it. Because I hate that, I hate — I've always hated reboots and retcons and the fact that a writer comes in and undoes what a previous writer did and, y'know, brings dead characters back to life, kills new characters that weren't intended to die. That's the one thing I don't like about comics. That drives me crazy.

So what do you think? Is it worth it?

Ant-Man may be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe soon, but we've got another classic Marvel hero on deck eyeballing his own spot on The Avengers. Doctor Strange, The Sorcerer Supreme (Benedict Cumberbatch), is getting his own movie late in 2016, and Tilda Swinton is coming along for the ride.

We've known for a while that she was in talks to play The Ancient One, mystical mentor to Strange and his nemesis, Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Now, in an interview with ScreenCrush, she's confirmed the casting.

"I’m a Marvel fan and I think this particular world that Doctor Strange goes into is really, really, really exciting. I’m really interested as both an actor and a fan to see what’s done in this particular world. It’s all about creativity. It’s not about everything exploding at the end. It’s about something very different. The idea of playing The Ancient One is really just too tickling. I can’t say no to that!"

Casting Tilda Swinton for The Ancient One is a pretty radical choice. Traditionally, the mystic has been portrayed as an older, Asian man which Swinton is not.

There are reports saying that Joaquin Phoenix of The Gladiator, and going crazy on David Letterman fame "has had discussions" with Marvel and director, Scott Derrickson about playing Doctor Strange in The Marvel MCU. Hopefully we'll find out more at Comic-Con during Marvel's panel tomorrow.

As Marvel enters Phase 3 of its cinematic universe, the superhero juggernaut will be introducing a lot of new characters to its roster. In a na interview with IGN, Marvel head Kevin Feige had something to say about how they're handling Doctor Strange,

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.

Marvel's new take on the Spider-Man seems to highlight this point. Rumors are suggesting that Peter Parker will be a year into his web slinging when he's introduced in Captain America: Civil War next year. Audiences have already watched Uncle Ben's death twice since 2002, and frankly no one wnats to hear "with great power, comes great responsibility" ever again.

Maybe the origin story isn't dead. Maybe it's just time to stop showing Spider-Man and Batman's.

In an interview with the folks running Daredevil on Netflix, /Film uncovered this neat tidbit of information:

Daredevil fans might appreciate one trivia tidbit about why Rosario Dawson’s character on the show is Claire Temple, rather than Linda Carter, aka Night Nurse. The simple reason is that we might see Night Nurse in a Marvel movie! “The feature side had plans for her down the road so that was the only time we ran into a conflict,” DeKnight said. “So we just used another name.”

With Marvel's slate of movies between now and 2019 already announced, it's not hard to figure out which upcoming Marvel hero she'd most likely be hanging out with, btw... it's Doctor Strange.



And since we know Rachel McAdams is in talks for the female lead, we can only cross our fingers and hope for the best!

He may not be the Doctor we asked for, but he is the Doctor we deserve

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) will take on Benedict Cumberbatch in a sorcerer's duel next November in Marvel's next comic to movie property, Doctor Strange. Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch) is a former surgeon, who after a serious injury to his hands, discovers a secret world of arcane arts and demons. Ejiofor will play Baron Mordo, his rival and former student of The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) who seeks power over all else.

Much like last year's Guardians of the Galaxy, Strange will open up Marvel's movie universe to a new realm. While Guardians showed audiences the galactic side to Marvel, Strange will introduce the magical/supernatural aspects. Hopefully, there's room for Blade or Ghost Rider in the near future.

Doesn't get much better than this. And the faith in Cumberbatch being able to do this role justice definitely went up a little, now that we know he's at least read one comic book. Indeed, it turns out Cumberbatch's ideal way to commemorate being done shooting 'Doctor Strange' was to pit stop at a local comic book shop fully attired as Stephen Strange. A picture of Cumberbatch with the owner of JHU Comic Books, Rene Rosa:



And of course the obligatory, shameless Stephen Strange selfie moment: