Marvel leak may reveal Benedict Cumberbatch is getting recast in the MCU

So, a funny thing happened to the MCU over the weekend. A whole heap of concept art for a raft of Marvel Studios’ upcoming projects found its way online, giving us unprecedented insight into what had previously been the top-secret future of the franchise. Naturally, most of the focus has been on the illuminating sneak peeks at the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, but the leaked art also appears to reveal a shocking development to come on Disney Plus.

First, some context: it all started when Marvel concept artist Mushk Rizvi shared a portfolio of her work on her personal website, which not only included harmless pieces from MCU past but artwork corresponding to releases that won’t hit screens for up to two years. Rizvi’s entire site has since been taken down, but naturally its contents are still all over social media. If you don’t want to know about one eyebrow-raising secret the artwork revealed regarding an incoming Disney Plus show, look away now. For everyone else, get ready for a twist that may seem a little… strange.

Benedict Cumberbatch is out of a role as Disney Plus series appears to replace him with a three-time Oscar nominee

Warning: Spoilers for Ironheart to follow. Last chance to turn back!

Stop your fretting, Stephen Strange fans — Benedict Cumberbatch is not going anywhere. What’s often forgotten is that Cumberbatch actually has a dual role in the MCU. And it’s this role that is apparently set to be recast come this summer’s Ironheart. According to Rizvi’s site, she provided concept art for a character described as “Human Dormammu.” We’ve elected not to embed the images to spare any spoilerphobes innocently scrolling down, but you can find them here.

Cumberbatch previously provided the Mo-Cap and vocal performance for Dormammu, the ridged chip-faced ruler of the Dark Dimension, in Doctor Strange, but it seems Marvel will recast the part when he appears in human form. Although Rizvi didn’t specify what project these pieces were for, it stands to reason that Human Dormammu could appear in Ironheart, thanks to the in-built connection to the character provided by Anthony Ramos’ villain, the Hood.

In the comics, the source of the Hood’s supernatural powers is Dormammu, so it would only make sense for the cosmic baddie to be the ultimate antagonist of Ironheart. By extension, we can then infer that this is who Sacha Baron Cohen is playing. For the longest time we were convinced he had been cast as Mephisto. Again, however, it would make a lot more sense if he was Dormammu, going by the source material.

Still, this last part is an educated guess, and Rizvi’s art doesn’t particularly resemble Cohen (but it definitely doesn’t resemble Cumberbatch), so the door is not entirely shut on the three-time Academy Award nominee becoming Marvel’s answer to the devil, after all. And yet it does seem all too believable that, having cruelly teased Mephisto’s imminent debut since WandaVision, Marvel is set to make us wait even longer. We’ll find out when Ironheart, starring Wakanda Forever‘s Dominique Thorne, premieres on streaming this June 24.