Doctor Strange enters the Marvel Cinematic Universe at a time of great change. Though The Avengers: Age of Ultron felt much more like the closing of a chapter, it was the release of Ant-Man in 2015 that officially concluded Marvel Studios' Phase Two.

Read our review of Doctor Strange

Captain America: Civil War has set the stage for Phase Three, but Benedict Cumberbatch's solo movie offers our first look into Marvel's magical world of parallel dimensions and megalomaniacal sorcerers. So what can we expect from the adventures of the Sorcerer Supreme?

Doctor Strange release date: Into a post Civil War world

Marvel Comics

Doctor Strange is scheduled for release on October 25, 2016 in the UK – after being moved up last minute from October 28 – and on November 4 in the US.

The release date was pushed back from the previously-announced July slot, presumably to accommodate Cumberbatch's notoriously packed schedule.

Doctor Strange plot: Make way for the Sorcerer Supreme

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Guardians of the Galaxy was widely billed as Marvel's 'anti-superhero movie', and Marvel Studios certainly have form with roguish anti-heroes given that Tony Stark basically kick-started the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it today.

But even taking all that into account, Doctor Strange might feature the studio's most straight-up unlikable protagonist yet. Stephen Strange is a brilliant, renowned and very arrogant neurosurgeon whose career is abruptly cut short by a car accident.

With his hands too damaged to perform surgery, Strange is driven to desperate measures to try and heal himself, and eventually turns to magic. It's through his discovery of the mystical arts that he ultimately earns the 'Sorcerer Supreme' moniker, and through his new role as Earth's protector that he becomes a better man.

The official synopsis reads as follows:

"Marvel's Doctor Strange follows the story of the talented neurosurgeon Doctor Stephen Strange who, after a tragic car accident, must put ego aside and learn the secrets of a hidden world of mysticism and alternate dimensions.

"Based in New York City's Greenwich Village, Doctor Strange must act as an intermediary between the real world and what lies beyond, utilising a vast array of metaphysical abilities and artifacts to protect the Marvel cinematic universe."

"Girls, cars, explosions, and astral projections into multiple universes – the usual fare," was Cumberbatch's tease at this year's D23 expo, where concept art also revealed that his red-and-blue costume would stay faithful to the comics' depiction - Cumberbatch will apparently even be sporting the character's trademark greying temples.

A Lego set has also hinted that Strange's long-term, demonic foe Shuma-Gorath might put in an appearance. Though it's worth noting that apparent Lego leaks have kicked off some unfounded rumours about Marvel movies before...

For more info on Doctor Strange's comic book origins, look no further than our cheat's guide over here.

Doctor Strange cast: Tilda is mixing it up again

Matt Baron/BEI/Rex Features

Some guy named Benedict Cumberbatch will play Stephen Strange, possibly with a British accent. And it looks like there'll be a transatlantic kind of vibe all around, since Chiwetel Ejiofor – with whom Cumberbatch previously worked in 12 Years a Slave – is signed on to play Strange's equally magical nemesis Baron Mordo. Although it looks like they're pals in this movie... at least in the beginning.

Both Stephen Strange and Baron Mordo were tutored in the mystical arts by a supernatural sorcerer known as The Ancient One, a traditionally male role which will be played by Tilda Swinton. While we're happy to see more quality female talent in the MCU, the casting of the white actress in what has always been an Asian role has understandably attracted its share of controversy.

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Benedict Wong will play... er... Wong, who is traditionally Strange's fighting butler, though it sounds like they're shaking up the role.

"I'm certainly not going to be the tea-making manservant. We're heading in a different direction. He's more of a drill sergeant," he told Den of Geek. "There isn't any martial arts for Wong in Doctor Strange actually, he's more of a drill sergeant to Kamar-Taj [the Ancient One's home]. He's one of the masters of sorcery."

Rachel McAdams is now confirmed to star as the unnamed female lead, rumoured to be Strange's fellow surgeon. She's down on IMDB as Christine Palmer, who who previews for the movie have also revealed that she is Strange's ex. Although she apparently won't become her comic book alter ego, the superhero GP Night Nurse.

Meanwhile Hannibal himself, Mads Mikkelsen, is playing a weird-eyed and so far unnamed antagonist – apparently the (unbelievably obscure) villain Kaecilius, who seems to have been a former student of the Ancient One who was corrupted by the powers of darkness. We'll be keeping an eye out for any hints of any classic Strange villains pulling his strings, and taking bets that it's Dormammu.

(In fact, it looks very much like Dormammu is waiting in the wings.)

Mikkelsen has teased Kaecilius isn't – at least not from his point of view – strictly a villain. "He is the antagonist, of course, but he's not necessarily wrong," said the actor.

There is a rumour that Brother Voodoo and Tina Minoru (mother of The Runaways character Nico) will make very brief appearances in the movie.

And Marvel tried to sneak Benjamin Bratt onto the cast without anybody noticing. We have no idea who he'll be playing, but he is presumably trying to recapture his Catwoman glory days.

Doctor Strange crew: Who's behind the camera?

Marvel

Scott Derrickson, best known for middle-of-the-road horror fare like Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose, directed the film.

He has also managed to sufficiently established his Doctor Strange nerdery with a exhaustive search for 40-year-old psychedelic merchandise. It looks like we're in safe hands.

The script was penned by writing duo Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, who have written such recent gems as 2005's Sahara and 2011's Conan the Barbarian. Prometheus co-writer Jon Spaihts also has a screenplay credit, but it's unclear whether he worked alongside Donnelly and Oppenheimer or rewrote their original draft.

Filming wrapped just after Easter, and Community creator Dan Harmon came on board to help write and work on the reshoots.

Doctor Strange: running time

Make sure you go for a tactical wee before the feature starts - it's going to be a long one. An Australian movie theatre chain has *probably* revealed the length of the film ahead of its release. Event cinemas has revealed (though it's as yet unconfirmed by Marvel) that the film will run at 130mins. That's two hours and ten minutes of Cumberbatchy goodness.

Marvel Studios

How will it tie into the wider Marvel Universe?

As yet, we have no idea. The only reference to Stephen Strange in the MCU movies to date was in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, in which he's named as one of several individuals whom HYDRA has targeted as possible threats.

Guesswork aside, Kevin Feige has promised that Doctor Strange will radically change the MCU by introducing "a whole other side" of the comic source material.

"We've done the street-level heroes, and we've done the billionaire superheroes," Feige said last year. "We've now done the cosmic side with Thor and Avengers and most obviously with [Guardians], but there's a whole other side of the Marvel comics, which is that supernatural side - the inter-dimensional side of the Marvel universe.

"Doctor Strange is, I believe, our entry point into that other realm, which has dozens of characters and storylines all of its own."

We can reasonably expect Doctor Strange to appear in Avengers: Infinity War, and in a recent interview Cumberbatch teased what exactly that might mean.

"To get us all together will be quite something," he told Empire. "That's why this character is being introduced, to open up the next chapter. So watch this space to see how that unfolds."

The mind-bending effects could also be hinting at a connection to Ant-Man's Quantum Realm, and an interesting possibility for the intersection of Marvel's magic and science.

What do you think about a team-up with Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly? Is Ant-Man and the Wasp and Doctor Strange the MCU movie we didn't know we've been waiting for?

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