doctor strange

It looks like Tilda Swinton is beating out Morgan Freeman, Bill Nighy and Ken Watanabe for the role of The Ancient One, the mentor and ally of Stephen Strange. Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, is a former surgeon who after injuring his hands, discovers the supernatural world of magic and demons.

The Ancient One helps Strange become Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, and a prime candidate for The Avengers. While, The Ancient One has typically been portrayed as male, Tilda Swinton seems like the perfect choice to play an ethereal, immortal figure not of this world.

George Takei initially picked apart Marvel for what he claims was blatant backpedaling on their part, when Marvel blamed the casting selection on the Chinese market as their reason for avoiding being associated with Tibet.



Then in the comments section Takei went off on what he views as a deep-seeded systematic problem of casting actors in movies for Asian roles.

"To those who say, "She an actress, this is fiction," remember that Hollywood has been casting white actors in Asian roles for decades now, and we can't keep pretending there isn't something deeper at work here. If it were true that actors of Asian descent were being offered choice roles in films, these arguments might prevail. But there has been a long standing practice of taking roles that were originally Asian and rewriting them for white actors to play, leaving Asians invisible on the screen and underemployed as actors. This is a very real problem, not an abstract one. It is not about political correctness, it is about correcting systemic exclusion. Do you see the difference?" 

Marvel needs to hurry up and confirm someone for Doctor Strange. Every other day, there's another rumor about a different tall, dark and brooding actor set to play The Sorcerer Supreme. Today isn't any different.

Deadline is reporting that every girl's dream, Benny C, is already in talks with Marvel Studios. Kevin Feige's not so secret press conference is tomorrow, so there's hope that this'll finally be settled. Until then, we'll keep our skepticism: