Kevin Feige deserves all the credit in the world for reinventing the face of blockbuster cinema forever when he launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2008, regardless of the current concerns over the franchise’s diminishing returns. However, the company’s chief creative officer was but a child 30 years previously when Doctor Strange made his feature-length debut.
At the time, superheroes weren’t exactly the all-conquering pop culture behemoths they are nowadays, but the made-for-TV movie featuring Peter Hooten as the Sorcerer Supreme had the benefit of arriving on screens only three months before Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve changed the game with Superman: The Movie, so it was released at what could have been the ideal time.
Not only that, but CBS also aired Lou Ferrigno’s wildly popular The Incredible Hulk that had premiered the previous year, as well as Nicholas Hammond’s short-lived The Amazing Spider-Man series. Technically, had Doctor Strange performed as expected, then CBS would have had three marquee Marvel properties to play with, carving out something of a universe in the process.
The only problem – which was admittedly a major one – is that Doctor Strange was trashed by critics, performed disastrously in the ratings, and wasn’t ordered to series. One lasting legacy it left behind is a status as a buried gem, though, seeing as the film has resurfaced on Reddit to leave modern-day MCU fans shocked to discover that there was an entire feature revolving around the Master of the Mystic Arts that existed 38 years prior to Benedict Cumberbatch’s solo debut.
Track it down if you dare, but there’s a reason why it’s been cast aside and largely lost to the sands of time.
