Marvel’s Dr. Strange One Step Closer to the Big Screen

Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 22, 2008

Does anyone actually want to see a Dr. Strange movie?

Kevin Feige apparently does. He’s the President of Production at Marvel Studios, and he recently sat down with MTV to talk about which Marvel comic book character could be slated for the big screen after The Avengers. The one name that came up as the most likely candidate is Dr. Strange.

“I’d say in the next year, year and a half, as we start putting together our film slate for 2012 and 2013, I would not be shocked if we saw Dr. Strange on those lists. I love the idea of tapping into the magical realm of the Marvel Universe, which is fairly significant and hasn’t yet seen life on screen. “It’s something I’m very, very interested in,” he emphasized.

This isn’t the first time the good doctor’s name has come up as a possible Marvel film star. A couple weeks ago Neil Gaiman acknowledged that he’d been thinking about it as well. “Guillermo del Toro and I have talked about doing a ‘Dr. Strange’ movie,” he said. “And I think we’d both really like to do a ‘Dr. Strange’ movie. We’d love to do it together.” Granted, that will never happen, especially with del Toro’s upcoming slate of The Hobbit, Hellboy 3, Slaughterhouse Five, Frankenstein, Halo, Jekyll and Hyde, and Alvin and the Chipmunks 2, but wouldn’t it just kick ass? I can’t claim to be that much of a Dr. Strange fan, but any collaboration between Gaiman and del Toro is bound to be incredible.

Part of the reason I could really care less about Dr. Strange is because of his whole ‘magic’ shtick. I prefer the real world settings of many of the recent comic book films, and magical/mystical/mysterious powers just seem slightly lame. It seems incongruous as part of Iron Man’s or The Hulk’s world, but even as a stand alone concept it doesn’t thrill me. Peter Sciretta with Slashfilm describes Dr. Strange as “a DC character stuck in the Marvel universe” which seems about right. (At least until Christopher Nolan’s Batman films proved just how dark, realistic, and cool a DC film could be.)

So if Marvel does proceed on this path of cheesy failure, who do you see playing Dr. Strange? One name most often mentioned by fans is Hugh Laurie from Fox’s House, M.D. Any other suggestions? David Blaine perhaps? Or should Marvel just drop the whole thing and focus on a guaranteed success like Ghost Rider 2 instead?

Who do you think should play Dr. Strange? Who should direct? Should Marvel even make a Dr. Strange movie?

Read more articles by Rob Hunter