When You’re Strange: A Look at Marvel’s Doctor Strange Movie. Todd Johnson

With the latest news coming out of camp Marvel Studios that the one and only Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange will be fronting Marvel’s upcoming phase 3 movie slate, along with Edgar Wright’s Ant Man, I’ve put my old casting cap on to delve into Dr. Strange’s world and give you some info on the good doctor and his merry band of cohorts. Coming up I’ll also give my 2 cents as to who Marvel could also be introducing in their third wave of movies as well as whom we might see in Avengers 2 and onwards.

But let us start with Stephen Strange shall we? Kevin Feige has stated that Dr. Strange is one of his favourite characters, and it doesn’t take an intellect akin to Mr. Fantastic to know that Feige knows his shit. He knows what works and what doesn’t so we need to have faith in this man, and that he and Marvel will present us a tripped out magical world full of demons and words that are full on gobbledegook that will work and make some bank. So even though we’re still a long way off with this one, I believe it’s worth getting a look in early.

So this Dr. Strange character, who also goes by the moniker of “The Master Of The Mystic Arts” was just like any other brilliant surgeon. A massive, massive arrogant jerk. His superior skills with a scalpel, and the speed in which he rose through the professional medical ranks meant he was just like George Clooney on “ER”. An attractive asshole. (Someone should probably tell me if I’m wrong about George being a dick on “ER”. I’ve never watched an episode, I’m just assuming here). But like all big, big jerks, there seems to be some fall involved before they can rise again, and in Stephen’s case it was a terrible car accident. The doctors involved were able to save his life, but the nerves and tendons in his hands were all sorts of messed up, which meant Dr. Strange was going to make a pretty crappy surgeon. One usually falls into a pit of despair around this point and Strange was no exception. He blew his fortune on travelling the world looking for a remedy to mend his hands and his reputation. He spent some time being an alcoholic and performing dodgy back alley procedures, until he heard of a mystical entity called The Ancient One.

Strange hot foots it to Tibet where The Ancient One (or Yao as I will now refer to him, because If I keep typing “The Ancient One” I’m going to go insane and start thinking I’m actually The Ancient One) is chilling and being an all-powerful magician, basically keeping the mystical forces in balance on our plane of existence. Strange want him to fix his hands and restore his former glory but Yao is all like ‘nah, I’ll just teach you the mystic arts, doe’ but Strange doesn’t want a bar of that. Long story short (I don’t want to spoil the movie too much) there is a blizzard and Yao’s current student, a bad mofo called Baron Mordo, tries to take out Yao with a dancing skeleton, and Strange saves the day, gaining Yao’s trust and becoming his new apprentice. He also gets a fresh nemesis in the form of Mordo, obviously. And Boom, cue montage of Strange learning all sorts of magical badassery from Yao, where we are introduced to all the coolest aspects of the Dr. Strange mythos: Astral planes, The Vishanti and The Eye Of Agamotto. Also, he fights a lot of demons. I’m pretty much imagining Gandalf vs The Balrog from “The Fellowship Of The Ring” x10. Only Strange is a snappier dresser and has a sweet moustache.

So now you know all about the good doctor, who do I want to see play him? The internet has been fan casting the shit out of Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness) to which I say “pffft”. Wrap that idea up. For the longest time, Viggo Mortensen (A History Of Violence, The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy) has been rumoured for the role, which would be a really, really awesome choice. Viggo can bust a really sweet mustache too. From all accounts, Viggo is a super intense dude, and I don’t know how badly he’d want to be involved in a magical superhero movie. So I’m going to throw Garret Dillahunt (The Assassination Of Jesse James…, Looper) into the ring. This guy can really act, he could run the gamut of prickishness as well as tortured, he is just on the cusp of the mainstream, so he shouldn’t cost the Marvel bean counters too much cash .I’m pretty sure he’d look mighty badass with a Dr. Strange mustache, too.

So that sorts the doctor out, but like all good heroes, we’re going to need some allies and some villains up in this joint. So I’ll go ahead and present you with a few of Stephen’s friends who will join the fight against the dark arts and some of his best (and weirdest) rouge’s gallery.

The Ancient One:

Strange’s master, and Sorcerer Supreme before the Doctor takes up the mantle. He’s more of a mystical entity than your traditional martial arts teacher: he is able to transcend life and walk the various plains of existence. He would be the one to pass the all-powerful Eye Of Agamotto onto Stephen (that’s a big deal). Can I have Gordon Liu for this role? Surely he’s the perfect choice to play an ancient mystic with the ability to kick many asses. I reckon Gordon loves a cameo too.

Wong:

Bruce Wayne has Alfred, Tony stark has Jarvis and Stephen Strange has Wong. Wong is Strange’s loyal man servant, and martial art extraordinaire. Wong was born the descendant of one of the Ancient One’s disciples and is tied to the legacy of the Sorcerer Supreme, hence always having Strange’s back. He is the care taker and cook at Strange’s Greenwhich Village Mansion Sanctum Santorum (that to an outsider looks like an abandoned Starbucks building) and is staunchly opposed to violence even though he could kill you five times before you hit the ground. Have you seen The Raid: Redemption? Of course you have. It’s totally awesome. Well if you shaved the head of Iko Uwais, who played the lead character Rama, I think you’d have a pretty fantastic Wong.

Clea:

Can anybody find me, somebody to love? (Sorry. I’ve been listening to a lot of Queen today). Just like the vast majority of human that inhabit this planet, Dr. Strange is going to need a love interest and there are a couple of beauties in the magical realms that tick those boxes. Clea is the niece of Dormammu, one of Strange’s greatest villains (more on him soon) and heir to the spooky Dark Dimension. He rescued her from certain evil and she became his student and lover. Jessica Chastain had to bail out of a role in Iron Man 3, and was apparently pretty torn up about it. So let’s dye her hair whitey/silvery lookin’ and a female sorcerer to rival Strange and get his blood boiling has been born.

Baron Mordo:

Everyone needs a good adversary in their lives. Well not me, I don’t want a bar of villainy. But that’s why I’m not the main character in movie about battling magicians and alternate dimensions. To ramp up the evil factor, we have Karl Amadeus Mordo. A man with tremendous occult powers, and a tremendous name. Mordo even hung out with Dracula once. I bet they got along famously. Evil jerks. Anyway, Dr. Strange essentially steals the title of Sorcerer Supreme away from Mordo and you can bet he gets super pissy about it. Cue inter-dimensional magic battles the likes of which you have never seen. I though Tommy Lee Jones would make a great Mordo, but he was in Captain America and he’s getting a bit long in the tooth. Josh Brolin is young Tommy Lee Jones, so that’s sorted then.

Dormammu:

Does the Devil on steroids sound like an interesting prospect to you? Well then you should get a kick out of Dormammu. Inhabitant of the Dark Dimension, ruler of the Hell-Lords, and kicks it with a flaming head and more power (he claims) than Galactus and the Celestials (that’s a butt-load). At one point he was the reigning Sorcerer Supreme, but now the givers of that power, the Vishanti, hate his guts and thus, good vs evil power struggles all over the shop. Dormammu is pretty much a big flaming head on fire guy in medieval garb, so one would assume he’d be a CGI creation. Are we calling in Andy Serkis to mo-cap that sukka? Of course we are.

So there you are, you should be quite well versed in the lore of Dr. Strange right about now. I don’t know about you but I got myself pretty excited thinking about the prospect of this movie happening. Let me know in the comment who you’d like to see fill these roles, and eve direct the movie. Do you think Guillermo Del Toro would add something like this to his ever growing pile of projects, or should Marvel keep up their tradition of going with very left field directors and give it to Don Coscarelli (the answers are no and yes by the way).

And don’t forget to stick around for my piece on The Avengers 2, who else might be showing up in Phase 3 and beyond.