According to Benedict Cumberbatch, who spills a spoiler-friendly secret, “Doctor Strange” will be put on hold until the next Marvel sequel, “Avengers: Doomsday.”
“Is that a spoiler?” the actor asked Variety in a recent interview. “fit!”
Speaking of nothing working, the Oscar-nominated star of “The Imitation Game” and “The Power of the Dog” also announced that he’s going to have a 20-year-old son, thanks to Marvel and Robert Downey Jr.’s surprise announcement at Comic-Con. , helped explain the “great thing”. Last summer, Downey was set to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as someone other than Iron Man.
Cumberbatch learned about Downey’s return to Marvel after watching the 2024 Comic-Con presentation live. So, according to Variety, he immediately grabbed his cell phone and sent a message to Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige.
“I texted, ‘What the–?'” and then quickly added, I was like, ‘Well, I don’t know–‘ I mean, my God,'” the 48-year-old star told the outlet.
For Cumberbatch, he said Downey’s return is a great thing as it eases his workload on set despite the pressures of making a multi-million dollar film. The British actor, whose parents were also actors, told Variety that Downey would call him “Mr. Shakespeare,” he quipped, referring to the pair playing literary detective Sherlock Holmes on screen. (Unfortunately, he said, no meta lines about their past roles were included in the film.)
The “Sherlock” and “Star Trek Into Darkness” star, who joined the MCU in 2016’s “Doctor Strange,” saw Downey play billionaire playboy Tony Stark and was cast in 2017’s ” He said he heard him joke with Spider-Man Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Homecoming. ” allowed him to take a more relaxed approach to a character he thought had been played too formally in his earlier appearances.
“I learned a lot from seeing how relaxed and improvising they were,” Cumberbatch said. “It’s difficult because there’s huge equipment around, but it’s very important.”
Cumberbatch, along with his production company Sunny March, is working on his latest projects, including The Thing with Feathers, which premieres at this week’s Sundance Film Festival, and Netflix’s Eric and the Roses, which will be “a kind of world in Europe.” I’m leaning a bit towards “movies”. Although Marvel movies have taken away his time from writer-directed projects, Cumberbatch has described the 34-film series with more to come as “modern modern mythology” He appreciates how blockbusters can “transport” the audience to different worlds.
“Yes, it’s huge and unwieldy, but Marvel is committed to getting it right,” Cumberbatch said. “Even if we make an Avengers movie and it gets exponentially bigger, we’re still just kids playing in the sandbox. We’re still just building it up and having fun.”
Oscar winner Downey famously launched the blockbuster MCU by starring as the titular superhero in the 2008 comic book version of Iron Man. His stint as the lead Avenger ended when his character sacrificed himself to save the universe in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Downey will play the role of Victor Von Doom, also known as Doctor Doom, a villain from Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four. Doomsday’s new villain is believed to be a Stark subspecies, according to reports.
Sadly, even with all the groundwork laid this summer with the arrival of a reboot of the Fantastic Four characters and reports of Chris Evans returning to the MCU, Doomsday is still very crowded. There is. As such, Cumberbatch’s role as the brain surgeon-turned-sorcerer Supreme will not be returning for the May 2026 film. Cumberbatch began spilling the beans about the studio’s ultra-secretive plans for the next phase of Marvel movies, although he was “momentarily intimidated by his candor” about the plot points.
When Jonathan Majors was fired last year after being found guilty of assault, a lot of things had to change, the actor explained. Majors, who played the enigmatic villain Kang the Conqueror, had been considered as a major antagonist in the next film, but the studio was forced to change direction after dropping him.
Appearance: Downey’s villain Doctor Doom. As a result of this change, Cumberbatch, who last appeared in the role in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, said the role was “not consistent with this part of the story.” ”, he said that he would not appear in “Doomsday.”
Admitting again that he probably shouldn’t have said that, Cumberbatch said there is “a lot” of his Doctor Strange in “Avengers: Secret Wars,” the Doomsday sequel set to hit theaters in 2027. ” he revealed. The director is Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, who co-directed the climax of “Infinity War” and “Endgame.”
“[Doctor Strange]is pretty central to what’s going to happen,” Cumberbatch said, hinting that the character will appear in a third standalone film.
He also praised the Disney-owned studio for being collaborative, saying he wants to explore where Doctor Strange goes next, who he wants to write and direct the next movie, and what parts of the character’s comic book story he wants to explore. He said he was ready to discuss the matter. “For Strange to continue to evolve.”
“He’s such a rich character to play. He’s a complex, contradictory human being with extraordinary abilities, so there’s a strong element to play with,” Cumberbatch said.
