As for Doctor Strange, Feige confirms that Derrickson has been hired to direct, and is confident in bringing the character into the MCU:
“Scott Derrickson has been announced as the director. Doctor Strange is a character that I’ve been interested in for many, many years and that I’ve talked about in interviews for probably 14 years, because I believe it’s very, very important for us to explore every nook and cranny of the comic-book universe and we’ve done the street-level heroes, and we’ve done the billionaire superheroes [on Earth].”
“We’ve now done the cosmic side with Thor and Avengers and most obviously with Guardians, but there’s a whole other side of the Marvel comics, which is that supernatural side – the inter-dimensional side of the Marvel universe, and Doctor Strange is, I believe, our entry point into that other realm, which has dozens of characters and storylines all of its own.”
Literally opening up the MCU to the more mystical elements of the universe is an incredibly exciting idea, and one that would help to add some storytelling diversity to the ever-growing slate of superhero films from the biggest studios in Hollywood. He’s right, we’ve seen our fair share of the typical characters, and I believe audiences are ready to start thinking outside the box with these comic book properties. As far as Feige is concerned, Strange is very important for the Marvel blueprint moving forward:
“So Strange is very, very important, not just because it’s an amazing character study, and a journey of a man who’s gone from this very arrogant surgeon to somebody who is quite zen and literally keeps all of reality together on a daily basis, but it also is going to open up a whole other side of storytelling for our movies. So we’re about to hire a writer to redo a draft, and we think we’ll be casting probably in the next month or two, and announcing an actor, and then we get into production in the spring of next year.”
Last we heard, the studio was looking at actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, and Jared Leto for the role, so hopefully we’ll hear some more updates on that as the casting process officially goes underway.
Ant-Man hits theatres on July 17th, 2015. Doctor Strange doesn’t have a release date yet but is expected to arrive sometime in late 2016, after Captain America 3. Tell us, what do you think of Feige’s comments? Does he help get you excited about these unorthodox superhero projects? Let us know in the comments below.
