Doctor Strange is Marvel Studios' worst kept secret. Fact.
Even though Marvel Studios has yet to officially announce a Doctor Strange movie release date, it is definitely coming to theaters in the next few years. And it is now assumed that its release date will be on July 6, 2016. The reasoning behind this unconfirmed release date for Doctor Strange is mainly due to the fact Marvel has already set a release for an untitled movie on this date and president Kevin Feige has confirmed to Total Film that Doctor Strange begins filming in spring 2015.
"So we're about to hire a writer to redo a draft, and we think we'll be casting probably in the next month or two, and announcing an actor, and then we get into production in the spring of next year."
Now if Doctor Strange is going to start filming in spring of 2015, this gives the studio just over 12 months to complete the film and falls in line with the production schedule used for recent films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. Each of those films began their full production schedule just over 12 months from its respective theatrical release date.
But that's not all the studio head had to share about the good Doctor. He briefly spoke about the importance of Doctor Strange to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
"So Strange is very, very important, not just because it's an amazing character study, and a journey of a man who's gone from this very arrogant surgeon to somebody who is quite zen and literally keeps all of reality together on a daily basis, but it also is going to open up a whole other side of storytelling for our movies."
This whole other side of the MCU is the supernatural side. Feige has teased that Doctor Strange will explore this side of the MCU before and this is exactly why director Scott Derrickson was hired to helm this movie—and why Prometheus writer Jon Spaihts is in talks to be hired to finalize the script—due to experience with the horror genre. The horror genre always walks the line of exploring the supernatural.
"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 interdimensional side of the Marvel universe, and Doctor Strange is, I believe, our entry point into that other realm, which has dozens of characters and storylines all of its own."
Currently, there are three frontrunners to possibly land the leading role of Doctor Strange and they are actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy and Jared Leto. However with casting option duscussions assumed to be taking place right now, more names could be added to the list in the upcoming months before an official announcement is made by Marvel Studios.
Stay tuned!
Related Post: DOCTOR STRANGE Looks Like it May be a Marvel Studios Horror Movie After Hiring Horror Director Scott Derrickson