Fans say they’re sick of origin stories in super hero movies, but not every colorful crime fighter is Spider-Man or Batman, whose origins have been told a million times over. It’s unlikely that most average moviegoers had a clue who Iron Man or Ant-Man were until their movies and it wouldn’t have made sense to just throw viewers into their world with no setup. And that’s certainly true as the focal characters get increasingly lower-profile.
Take for example, Marvel’s next solo movie headliner, Doctor Strange. Die-hards may know that Doctor Stephen Strange was a brilliant, yet arrogant surgeon who lost the use of his hands in an accident. Desperate to reclaim his skills, he journeyed to Tibet where he became the apprentice of a sorcerer called The Ancient One, eventually rising to the level of Sorcerer Supreme.
Or as the average person on the street would say, “Doctor who?” (Not to be confused with… you know.)
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige discussed Marvel’s next solo outing, including whether or not fans can expect another origin. Short answer: yes.
“For some reason people sometimes talked about how we’re not doing an origin story, we’re bored of origin stories. I think people are bored of origin stories they’ve seen before or origin stories that are overly familiar. Doctor Strange has one of the best, most classic, most unique origin stories of any hero we have, so why wouldn’t we do that? That was sort of always the plan. How you tell that origin, perhaps there are ways to twist it or play with that, but for the most part, it’s a gift when the comics have something with such clarity of story and of character. That doesn’t always happen in the comics, and when it does, you use it.”
He also discussed the roles that the female actors– Tilda Swinton and Rachel McAdams— will have in the film. Swinton will portray The Ancient One, while McAdams’ role is still a mystery.
The casting of Swinton, a Caucasian woman, to play a character that is, in the comics, an Asian man, raised eyebrows and even led some to question whether the androgynous actor was even playing the role as a woman.
Once again, short answer: yes.
Said Feige:
“We get an amazing actress to play an amazing character, and do it in a way that’s very unique and doesn’t fall into any outdated stereotypes that sometimes pop up in the comics from years past. It’s funny you ask ‘Will Tilda Swinton be playing a woman?’ and you ask it because she does an amazing job of being sort of ambiguous in terms of gender. I think you’ll see us playing it in ways that she’s played other characters that way. Clearly she’s a woman, but it is very ambiguous in her portrayal.”
McAdams’ role is unrevealed, and while Feige didn’t say who she would be playing, he emphasized her unique place in the film… but stressed that Benedict Cumberbatch‘s Doctor Strange is still the focus of the film.
“She plays a very, very big part in the movie and represents a certain point of view of the worlds that we experience in that movie, but Doctor Strange, without a doubt, is the character we follow through the movie.”
‘Doctor Strange’ is slated to go into production in November and is scheduled to hit theaters a year later on November 4, 2016. As production kicks off, expect more details to magically appear.
What do you think so far? Are you excited to see the origin of ‘Doctor Strange’ on the big screen?
Source: IGN
