Benedict Cumberbatch will have some company as he traverses the world of sorcery in Marvel’s Doctor Strange – THR is reporting today that Tilda Swinton (Only Lovers Left Alive) will be taking on the role of a Tibetan mystic known as The Ancient One (because you didn’t think she’d be playing a straight love interest, now did ya?) in the Scott Derrickson-directed blockbuster, which is intended to simultaneously introduce the Sorcerer Supreme and the more magical side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
What Marvel fans will make of the casting (The Ancient One was a man in the comics) should be interesting, but there’s no denying the attraction of casting a uniquely talented actress like Swinton in the part of a major comic-book character. She’s transformed herself again and again in everything from Snowpiercer to The Grand Budapest Hotel in recent years, so it’s entirely possible we may not even recognize the actress when she appears in Doctor Strange, but watching Swinton instruct Cumberbatch’s Strange in the ways of the dark arts should be a riot.
Of note: Bill Nighy, Ken Watanabe and Morgan Freeman had already been considered for the part of The Ancient One, suggesting that Marvel hadn’t always planned on regendering the character.
Buzz around Doctor Strange has been surprisingly minimal so far, with Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man and Captain America: Civil War hogging the media spotlight, but rumors have suggested that the movie will include Dormammu and Baron Mordu as villains, along with the Mindless Ones, while others have stated that Doctor Strange will not be entirely set on Earth, with the Sorcerer Supreme venturing into otherworldly dimensions.
No other actors are yet attached to the Phase Three film, but expect that to change shortly as Derrickson ramps up for a shoot this fall.
Doctor Strange arrives on November 4, 2016.
