If there’s one thing the web loves, other than cats, crowdfunding, naked pictures of famous celebrities, rightfully damning people who leak naked pictures of famous celebrities against their will, and bacon, it’s Benedict Cumberbatch. People just go apesh!t over Benedict and his smooth British accent and his perfectly angular — but not too angular — bone structure. Anyway, he’s been cast as Doctor Strange in the new Marvel movie of the same name, so expect plenty of fan art and slash fiction of Doctor Strange any day now. Deadline reports …
Marvel has finally found its Doctor Strange. I’m hearing Benedict Cumberbatch is the studio’s choice for the superhero pic, and negotiations are about to begin. The news comes after talks with Joaquin Phoenix around the time of Comic-Con went south, and Marvel went back to the drawing board. With names like Jared Leto and Tom Hardy also in the mix, this is obviously a coveted role. I expect this deal to make. Scott Derrickson is directing Doctor Strange and Jon Spaihts is writing the script for the pic (the first draft was penned by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer). Doctor Strange was hatched by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko during that Marvel Comics heyday of the early 1960s. He’s a neurosurgeon who becomes Sorcerer Supreme, protecting Earth against magical and mystical threats with powers of sorcery, mysticism, and martial arts. Marvel’s Kevin Feige is producing.
Not going to lie–that’s perfect casting right there. Benedict does kind of look like a mystical sorcerer whose wisdom and cunning let him rise above the peons. If Benedict held a press conference tomorrow to let everyone know that he actually is a wizard, I’m assuming most people would just shrug their shoulders and go, “meh, figures. He is British after all, he probably went to Hogwarts and everything.” I guess what I’m saying is if you’re casting for sorcerer supreme, you can’t do much better than Benedict Cumberbatch. His name even makes him sound like a Harry Potter character!