Before the days of shared comic book movie universes, the first superhero movie to really gain some acclaim among fans and critics alike was Tim Burton’s ‘Batman.’ Rather than following today’s formula of origin stories, that film presented a story in media res where Batman had already been established as Gotham City’s vigilante crime-fighter in his world. While it may have touched on how the Dark Knight got his start, it definitely wasn’t all about his origin. Now, while they have found success in presenting their characters’ origins in their first films, Marvel Studios might be going back to Burton’s playbook for Phase Three.

According to Devin Faraci of Badass Digest on the Meet The Movie Press podcast, ‘Deliver Us From Evil’ director Scott Derrickson’s ‘Doctor Strange’ will not be an origin story and neither will the Marvel movies following it. At about the fifty-two minute mark of their discussion, Faraci says this about Stephen Strange’s big screen debut, which is currently rumored to star Joaquin Phoenix:

“Doctor Strange, they had a script in house forever….It’s a pretty standard origin story for Doctor Strange, it’s gotta Baron von Mordo as the bad guy. That’s all gone. Marvel’s new thing is no more origin stories. So Doctor Strange’s movie no longer has an origin. It begins in media res, it’s got Doctor Strange all ready established as The Sorcerer Supreme. It’s a totally new script. Jon Spaiths [of ‘Prometheus’] is working totally new, on his own, without any of the previous stuff. They’re not even touching the previous script…. This is not going to be 20 minutes of him as a doctor.”

This is definitely a departure from the Marvel movie model that we’ve seen up until now, but it’s not completely unexpected. In ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, the character is mentioned as a potential threat, meaning that Strange presumably already has the Eye of Agamotto and has been practicing the mystical arts for some time.

However, what’s more interesting about this departure from the tried and true method of modern day superhero movies is that Marvel isn’t looking to do any more origin stories after this. If they were to introduce the Inhumans or Captain Marvel, they could probably spin them off from the upcoming ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ sequel pretty seamlessly, but it might be a little harder to do with Black Panther, the Punisher, or Namor. We’ll see if their sources turn out to be right about the departure from origins, but either way it’s a good thing that Marvel might be looking to shake things up a bit.

What do you think about the latest news about ‘Doctor Strange’? Are you excited for Scott Derrickson’s take on the Sorcerer Supreme? Does it disappoint you that we potentially won’t get to see how Stephen Strange became a master of the mystic arts? Share your thoughts in the comments below.