Benedict Cumberbatch Will Be Marvel's Dr. Strange

[ghalleon0915]

I love Doctor Strange, and I hope this works out well. I hope Clea, Wong, and the Ancient One will be there as well ( and casted appropriately, I hope).

 

[Boba Frag]

Oh, just go with Orlando Bloom. Or Nathan Fillion! Or hell, just have a different fangirl bait actor play him in every scene. Start with shirtless Johnny Depp, then next scene is shirtless Orlando Bloon, then brown coat wearing Nathan Fillion, then just have Doctors 10 and 11 making out furiously and start listing slash fic story prompts on screen.
And then Daniel Radcliff comes in wearing his Harry Potter robes and gets into a 'depressed moody look' contest with that dude from Twilight.

This cheered me up after such dreadfully disappointing casting news, thanks!!

I don't get the fascination with him, nor do I think he's a bad actor and won't make a good stab at it, but... ech.
He's in godamn every. Single. Thing. these days, and most of these are things I like, but, I don't know, his screeching fans annoy the hell out of me.

Shame, too, cos Doctor Strange is one of those characters that will no doubt benefit from the star pull, but I don't think I'll be going to see it.
The guy just puts me off.

 

[Coruptin]

when i think sorcerer supreme, the physical embodiment milquetoast isn't exactly what comes to mind

 

[elvor0]

I don't get where this "overexposed" talk is coming from. Cumberbatch is no more prolific than any other big-name actor these days, and he's a seriously talented actor unlike lots of other actors that show up in everything. Benedict Cumberbatch is popular for a reason.

I mean, Matther McConaughey has been in just about everything since people realized that he's actually a fantastic actor a few years ago, but we aren't skipping Interstellar because it's "yet another McConaughey film".

The difference is that we don't hear constant fanboyish gushing every time McConaughey is cast for a role. Meanwhile I heard non-freaking-stop about how awesome it was that Cumberbatch was in the new Star Trek movie... and then it sucked. Then I heard non-freaking-stop about how awesome it was that Cumberbatch was going to be the voice of Smaug in the second part of The Hobbit... and then it sucked. Granted that I'm sure neither movie sucking was his own fault (I blame a terrible story and needless fan fiction, respectively), but it hasn't really done him any favors all the same.

Basically, unless you're a fan of the Sherlock TV show, it gets tiring hearing non-stop gushing every time he gets announced for a new role.

That's not entirely fair though. Like you said, it's not his fault the movies weren't very good. He was still a good choice though, as he and Simon Pegg were the only good things about Into Darkeness. Cumberbatch still worked as Smaug, just Jackson decided to go off a complete tangent and invent an entire second half of the movie. If the actors were bad and thus ruined the movies yeah sure, go for it, but otherwise no. Although Orlando Bloom didn't have to agree to come back and play bloody Legolas. *grumble*

OT: Yeah I'm game, Marvel have yet to go wrong with /casting/ choices have they?

 

[Something Amyss]

... Breakfast Chinese-Brunch doesn't look a thing like Dr. Strange though.

I don't know. Johnny Depp was in consideration. Compared to that the choice to go with Cumberbatch seems like an amazing opportunity.

[
You'll "sit this one out"? A marvel film? Because of one actor? Yeah, good luck with that matey. Tharr be clouds up ahead wher' yo're goin'.

It's really not unreasonable to want to skip a movie because you don't like the lead actor.

I don't particularly think Cumberbatch is that bad, but when that one actors is the title role, the focus of the show? It's a legit reason to have a problem with the movie in question.

 

[Taliesin Hoyle]

His contract will make the Iron Bands of Bilarro look like a twistix.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Oh, just go with Orlando Bloom. Or Nathan Fillion! Or hell, just have a different fangirl bait actor play him in every scene. Start with shirtless Johnny Depp, then next scene is shirtless Orlando Bloon, then brown coat wearing Nathan Fillion, then just have Doctors 10 and 11 making out furiously and start listing slash fic story prompts on screen.
And then Daniel Radcliff comes in wearing his Harry Potter robes and gets into a 'depressed moody look' contest with that dude from Twilight.

For a moment, I thought you were describing The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1054606/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast]

(the same character is played by Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell all at different times in the movie).

 

[Krantos]

I look at it this way:

Remember how we all felt when this Guy

Spoiler

Was chosen to play the joker? Remember how that turned out?


Long story short, I'm not discounting any movie just because I'm not convinced the appropriate actor was cast.

 

[prowll]

Dear sweet jebus no. If true, it's stunt-casting of the worst order. Just there to be drool-bait for the teenage fangirls he seems to have swanning after him. Wrong age, wrong nationality (he's not good at hiding that british accent), and just... wrong.

 

[Verlander]

Reckon Liam Neeson would have been better

Spoiler

 

[Ratty]

We'll see how he looks in the mustache. I just hope he can play the fantasy elements straight, because you really need that for the character to work and not descend into self-parody.

... Breakfast Chinese-Brunch doesn't look a thing like Dr. Strange though.

Eh, he's currently "loved" by a fair chunk of the geek demographic so I guess while not an accurate character it'll at least guarantee sales.

Well the ideal actor to play Strange, who I've always suspected Steve Ditko based his appearance on, is Vincent Price. But Price has been dead for decades unfortunately.

 

[Ferisar]

You'll "sit this one out"? A marvel film? Because of one actor? Yeah, good luck with that matey. Tharr be clouds up ahead wher' yo're goin'.

It's really not unreasonable to want to skip a movie because you don't like the lead actor.

I don't particularly think Cumberbatch is that bad, but when that one actors is the title role, the focus of the show? It's a legit reason to have a problem with the movie in question.

I mostly mean that unless all of your friends/family/colleagues are of the same opinion is you (which is unlikely), the chances of you not being pressured into seeing it are quite low

 

[theNater]

Well the ideal actor to play Strange, who I've always suspected Steve Ditko based his appearance on, is Vincent Price. But Price has been dead for decades unfortunately.

If you're going to let a little thing like that stop you, you're not really committed to a Dr. Strange movie.

 

[WonkyWarmaiden]

Actually, at an event Marvel was holding today Kevin Feige said that they haven't finalized anything, if they had they would have mentioned it. So no Cumberbatch in the MCU yet, sorry guys.

 

[Elfgore]

Not my pick. He jut doesn't seem to fit in my mind. Of course he could always prove me wrong, hope he does in fact. But damn I can't help but be disappointed. I really wanted Joaquin Phoenix to get the role. Verlander here has also showed me how awesome Liam Neeson would be in that role. He plays a wise sorcerer really well.

 

[Something Amyss]

I mostly mean that unless all of your friends/family/colleagues are of the same opinion is you (which is unlikely), the chances of you not being pressured into seeing it are quite low

Hm. I've never had this problem.

 

[Ratty]

Well the ideal actor to play Strange, who I've always suspected Steve Ditko based his appearance on, is Vincent Price. But Price has been dead for decades unfortunately.

If you're going to let a little thing like that stop you, you're not really committed to a Dr. Strange movie.

Little thing like what, Cumberbatch not looking exactly like Vincent Price, or Price being dead? Lol well I'm a big fan of the character, but I do have my concerns about how they're going to play him in the movies. He needs to be un-relatable in a way similar to how people complain Thor is. Because he's NOT a Peter Parker "everyman" type, nor is he Batman or Superman. He winds up altruistic but initially seeks his powers for entirely selfish reasons. Before he became the enlightened defender of our dimension, he was a rich asshole. He's contemplative and usually overworked, not angsty, brooding or "aw shucks" good natured.

He might love humanity but he is forever apart from it, he can't relate to the man on the street. Weary and powerful he's well... Strange. And he needs to be since about half his rogues gallery could be described as "Cthulhu but with-X"

 

[Therumancer]

If this happens it will be the first time in my life where I have not only predicted the right person but it will also be the person I wanted the most. I love Doctor Strange and I honestly don't think there is anyone who would do a better job.

Plus I am not someone who needs things to keep 100% to the source material so here is hoping he gets to keep the accent. They could always say that one of his parents was English and that he picked up the accent from them.

Well, I do think with iconic characters they need to keep to the source material, so I'm hoping he does drop the accent and plays American. We'll have to agree to disagree there.

That said my problem with them casting this guy is that what little I've heard about him as a person leads me to believe he's kind of an arrogant douche in real life. Marvel is already running into some issues with paying/keeping their top tier talent they have cast in some of the roles. If Benedict is really good in this role (and chances are he will be) and turns Doctor Strange into a success, he's exactly the kind of guy that is going to be bucking for more money, and who is likely to refuse contract renewals regardless of what the fans want. I might have heard it wrong, but apparently they have had some real trouble with him doing Sherlock since he thinks he's too good for the show, despite the fan demand. I could be hearing the wrong things, but honestly I'd rather they had cast someone else who I'd be more confident in keeping the character alive for the long term if it succeeds. At least with Johnny Depp (who I had mixed opinions of being able to do it) he's worked with Disney before and as we've seen with "Pirates" he's not that difficult to get back for sequels to a successful film series.

Doctor Strange is a personal favorite Marvel character, so I actually want this one to succeed and turn into a decent franchise more than the others they have done so far (but it's also arguably the longest shot). To me it's not about just casting the right guy, it's about casting someone who is not only the right guy but will stick with it.

 

[Gizmo1990]

Snip

First off I am with you, I love Doctor Strange and I do hope that they stick to the source as much as possible. The only reason I would not mind if he kept his accent is because he has such a great voice and I don't know how it would sound if he tried an american accent.

As for the guy himself, in most of the interviews I have seen he seems like a nice enough guy. You definatly have the Sherlock stuff wrong. The reason there is such a long time between seasons of Sherlock is because not only is he becoming a bigger star but so is Martin Freeman. Plus Moffat is busy running Doctor Who (into the ground) that it is very difficult to get them all together to film them. Despite their rising fame and how busy they are both Cumberbatch and Freeman have made it very clear that they want to continue with the show.

I am more worried about who they will get to play Mordo and Dormammu. And now I think about it I am having a hard time thinking of anyone who would be a good Ancient One.