LOS ANGELES – If you ask Benedict Cumberbatch how he reacted the first time he put on the cloak and really saw himself decked out as Doctor Strange, his answer is a lot like how you’d react.

“I was sort of giddy like a child at Halloween,” the British actor says of playing the renowned surgeon-turned-mystical magician character in Marvel’s latest superhero film (opening Friday). “It really was the penny drop moment for me.”

The fact that audiences were going to see the origin story for one of comicdom’s oldest heroes had its appeal. Ditto the visually groundbreaking nature of director Scott Derrickson’s entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But seeing himself suited up in costume ended up being Cumberbatch’s big superhero moment.

“I stood up giggling,” he tells reporters at a Beverly Hills hotel. “The second time it really hit home was when we were in New York and there were as many paparazzi as there were crew... it was magic to think that the men and women that first crafted these comics (worked in the city) and there I was playing one of those characters.”

Doctor Strange is the 14th entry in the MCU, and introduces one of the company’s Silver Age characters into Phase Three of a film slate that has so far included Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and more.

The Sorcerer Supreme will be part of a new rollout of heroes that features Black Panther, Captain Marvel and a rebooted Spider-Man. Strange will also appear in next year’s Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War in 2018.

It’s a big commitment that will see the Sherlock star tied to the Marvel machine for the better part of the next decade. And it almost didn’t happen.

When Cumberbatch was first approached to star, Strange had a summer 2016 release date. There was only one problem: he was committed to do Hamlet onstage in London until the fall of 2015.

Luckily, producers moved the release date and waited for an opening in Cumberbatch’s schedule.

“It’s incredibly flattering,” he says. “It’s a great motivator to try and do a good job.”

The film is perhaps Marvel’s oddest yet, placing its hero in a magical realm that protects our world from unseen dark forces bent on destroying our reality.

The comic was a product of the 1960s, created by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, and much of Derrickson’s visuals embrace the mind-expanding elements of the time.

“Every day I thought someone was going to knock on my door and say, ‘You got to back off, this is getting too weird,’” Derrickson says. “And it never happened... Marvel was really completely behind the idea.”

The ensemble film also stars Tilda Swinton (as the Ancient One), Chiwetel Ejiofor (as Mordo, Strange’s mentor and friend), Rachel McAdams (as Christine Palmer, Strange’s love interest), Benedict Wong (as Wong, protector of Kamar-Taj’s mystical library) and Mads Mikkelsen (as the villainous Kaecilius, who seeks to create a world with no end).

Bringing Strange into the MCU opens up the possibility of including the comics’ Illuminati (which features Strange, Iron Man, Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Fantastic Four’s Mr. Fantastic, the X-Men’s Professor Charles Xavier and Black Bolt of the Inhumans) into future films.

“Certainly some of those characters you will see together on screen in the next Avengers,” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says.

One thing is for certain: Doctor Strange isn’t a one-off.

“Benedict puts on the cloak again early next year in Avengers: Infinity War,” Feige adds.

Cumberbatch is a bit more measured when it comes to Doctor Strange 2, which is teased in a post-credits scene.

“Let’s get this film out first,” he says with a laugh. “I just want to enjoy today. I really, really do.”

And if it isn’t a hit, he does have a fallback working at a comic book store in New York.

Dressed as Doctor Strange, “I went into a comic book store on the last day of shooting in New York,” he says with a smile. “I didn’t buy any comics, but I offered my services. I said, ‘Look, if the film doesn’t work out, I’ll come and stack the shelves for you.’”

Twitter: @markhdaniell

MDaniell@postmedia.com