Following EW’s new set of photos for the upcoming Phase Three flick, Marvel Studio’s Kevin Feige had a few words on Doctor Strange’s visual style, as well as details on its cast.
“When this comic appeared in the early ’60s, it really informed, in a way that is pretty amazing, a lot of the psychedelic ’60s as we know it. I don’t know that they were doing anything weird in the bullpen in Marvel, but certainly the stuff they were doing inspired all those people who were doing mind-expansion experiments at the time. So, that’s inherent to the property. And that’s our mission statement for the visual effects on this movie.”
Benedict Cumberbatch — Doctor Strange himself — added to Feige’s description with; “There’s all sorts of craziness [in Doctor Strange]. Falling, flying, jumping, fighting, punching, getting punched. It’s really rough and tumble.”
A psychedelic, ‘rough and tumble’ superhero movie utilizing magic? Could be interesting. But what of the film’s cast? After all, a film relies heavily on the characters portrayed in it, right? Particularly when it comes to the film’s villain/s. With Cumberbatch playing the lead role, and being supported by brilliant actors such as Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Mads Mikkelsen, expectations can be pretty high.
“Mads is playing our main villain,” said executive producer Stephen Broussard.
To this reveal, Feige added; “We will take audiences through sort of a guide to the multiverse, other dimensions, and there are amazing things out there — wonders that are going to be hopefully visually extremely interesting and unique to this movie. But there are also very scary things in these other dimensions. Mads’ character is a sorcerer who breaks off into his own sect. [He] believes that the Ancient One is just protecting her own power base and that the world may be better off if we were to allow some of these other things through.”
And as for actor Rachel McAdams ever-elusive role in the upcoming film? “Rachel McAdams plays a fellow surgeon that has a history with Strange and is his sort of lynchpin to his old life, once he steps into he role of a sorcerer,” says Feige. “She is someone he connects with at the beginning, and reconnects with, and helps anchor his humanity.”
Broussard added to the discourse with; “Rachel McAdams is sort of [Doctor Strange’s] contemporary in the modern-day New York world, before and after he goes on this crazy journey. “So, she sees him before, she sees him after. She’s kind of this audience point of view.”
With this new bit of info, my earlier prediction of McAdams playing the role of Clea has been shot full-on in the face. Indeed, McAdams — based on Feige and Broussard’s clues — is in fact NOT Strange’s predestined and highly power mage apprentice, but rather a non-magical character named Gina Atwater.
Atwater, a fellow surgeon and estranged (no pun intended) ex of Strange, appeared in the 2007 animated film Doctor Strange: The Ssorcerer Supreme, in which Atwater served a very similar role as the one Feige and Broussard hint to with McAdams.
Doctor Strange is slated to hit theaters on November 4, 2016. As always, stay plugged in to SE for more Comic Nook News as it develops.