Meet the Cast of Doctor Strange!
By Erin
Marvel Studios has created more movie magic with “Doctor Strange!” Coming out in theaters this Friday, November 4. You won’t want to miss it! Doctor Stephen Strange, the Master of the Mystic Arts, made his first appearance in Marvel comics in 1963. Th Marvel Cinematic Universe opens up a host of new, electrifying stories and exciting, mystifying, never-before-seen action with this one. There has always been a very important supernatural side to the Marvel comics, and ‘Doctor Strange’ is the perfect entry point into that realm, with parallel dimensions, alternate dimensions and the multiverse, which unlocks an entirely new area of storytelling.
The story follows world-famous neurosurgeon Dr. Stephen Strange, whose life forever changes after he gets himself into a horrific car accident where he ends up losing the ability to be able to use his hands. Traditional medicine fails him miserably, and he is willing to do anything to heal his precious hands. He ends up in an unlikely place—a mysterious enclave known as Kamar-Taj. He soon finds out that this is not just a center for healing but also the front line of a battle against unseen dark forces bent on destroying reality. Strange finds out he has some magical powers of is own and is forced to choose to either return to his old life or to defend the world as the most powerful sorcerer in existence.
The other week I had the opportunity to meet the cast of this action-packed film. Here are a few fun and exciting things they had to share with us.
Talent in attendance
· Benedict Cumberbatch (“Dr. Stephen Strange”)
· Rachel McAdams (“Christine Palmer”)
· Tilda Swinton (“The Ancient One”)
· Benedict Wong (“Wong”)
· Mads Mikkelsen (“Kaecilius”)
· Director Scott Derrickson
· Producer Kevin Feige
Kevin Feige shared with us about the right time to bring Dr. Strange into the Marvel Cinematic Universe “Sometimes things just work out, timing often, particularly in the cinematic universe, works out well for us, and it’ll be our 14th film within the MCU and we always say we have to push the boundaries, we have to keep surprising people, we have to keep making them unique and different, and certainly this movie and this character fits all of that. Also tapping into other dimensions and tapping into sort of that supernatural realm of the Marvel Comic Universe is going to come in handy, as we move forward throughout the Cinematic Universe, so the timing was perfect.”
Scott Derrickson added to that how Doctor Strange was a product of the Sixties and was a big breath of fresh air into the world of comics at that time, and as a fan watching movies felt ready for some new, daring, weird left turns in the world of comic books and the MCU. Guardians of the Galaxy was that and was such a bold that movie. When he came in to meet for Doctor Strange, his approach was, let’s make this as weird in the MCU as the comic was in the comic book world in the Sixties. I think they’ve done a good job accomplishing this!
One of the biggest challenges of the movie and to keep it fresh according to Scott, was to try to make a movie that is as visually progressive by movie standards as the Ditko art was in the Sixties. “The primary source of inspiration was the early Stan Lee, Steve Ditko comics, and that artwork is still progressive. That was the primary source of inspiration and visual effects have just caughten up to where we can do some of the things that we did in this movie. The trick of it was to not hold back and to push ourselves as far as possible to do original things with the set pieces.”
ME! On the red carpet. So exciting… even with a sprained ankle (even though it’s kind of cut off you can still tell my right ankle is way bigger than my left! And still a bit bruised up… but a huge improvement from what it was 3 weeks before this when I first sprained it. Watch out for curbs, they’re evil… :/
Waiting for the cast to arrive for red carpet photos.
