Principal photography began last month on Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange, and we now have a first look at its star, Oscar-nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game) in the title role. The Marvel mystical superhero graces the new cover of Entertainment Weekly. Check it out below:
Cumberbatch as Strange sports a light beard, wearing a red cloak and powerful amulet, the Eye of Agamotto.
In the EW interview, Cumberbatch disclosed his own thought process behind how to portray the metaphysical doctor, stating “It was like, okay, I’ve got to keep throwing these poses, these spells, these rune-casting things, everything he does physically. I’m thinking, there’s going to be a huge amount of speculation and intrigue over the positioning of that finger as opposed to it being there, or there. And I’m still working on that. We haven’t played any of those scenes yet.“
The movie has an intriguing cast lined up, including Amy Landecker (Amazon’s award-winning series Transparent), Michael Stuhlbarg (Trumbo), Oscar winner Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton), Oscar-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes franchise) and Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale).
The screenplay, credited to Jon Spaihts, C. Robert Cargill, Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, centers on the origin story of Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch), a top-notch neurosurgeon whose hands get mangled in a car accident. His worldwide search for a cure leads him to The Ancient One (Swinton), who teaches him the mystic arts. Stuhlbarg will play Dr. Nicodemus West, a character in the original Marvel comic books, who performed hand surgery on Strange and through a series of events, also gets partially trained in the mystic arts by The Ancient One. A nemesis, Baron Karl Mordo (Ejiofor), was a one-time student of The Ancient One who turns to evil. According to EW, Mikkelsen will play another villain, described as “a sorcerer who breaks off into his own sect… and 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.”
Check out EW’s other exclusive photos from Doctor Strange below:
The film bows on November 4, 2016.