Road to Infinity War: DOCTOR STRANGE Retrospective


Welcome to the Road to AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. This is my own little retrospective of each of Marvel Studios' films every week of 2018 and by the time I am done looking back at all of the MCU movies, Infinity War will be releasing in theaters in the U.S. on May 4 worldwide on April 27. 

I've already talked about IRON MANTHE INCREDIBLE HULKIRON MAN 2THORCAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, and THE AVENGERS to conclude Phase 1.

I have also completed Phase 2 with IRON MAN 3THOR: THE DARK WORLDCAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIERGUARDIANS OF THE GALAXYAVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, and ANT-MAN.

Now, I'm on to Phase 3 with CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR in the rearview mirror and up next is DOCTOR STRANGE...

The single biggest piece of drama coming out of the pre-production process of DOCTOR STRANGE was the whitewashing controversy by casting actress Tilda Swinton in the role of the Ancient One, who, in the comics, was an Asian male. It was quite the misstep by Marvel Studios, who have not dealt with the kind of backlash resulting in this casting.

The film is one studio head Kevin Fiege had been hinting at for a long time and you could tell the character was one of his personal favorites. After hiring horror genre director Scott Derrickson to helm the solo film, the next step was to be the hardest... casting the perfect actor who could portray the Master of the Mystic Arts. There were reports how actor Joaquin Phoenix was one of the top finalists for the role, but Fiege and Derrickson already had one man envisioned as the good Doctor in Benedict Cumberbatch. Unfortunately, Cumberbatch's stage schedule conflicted with that of the original production timeline for DOCTOR STRANGE, so the studio pushed back the release of the movie from summer 2016 to fall 2016 to show Cumberbatch how much they wanted him in the lead role by accommodating his busy schedule.

It turned out to be a perfect match, although some fans (myself included) had hoped Cumberbatch would bring his own British accent to the role instead of having an American accent. Regardless, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was about to open up in a weirdly, big way as the introduction of Doctor Strange also meant the introduction of countless dimensions within the massive Multiverse.



Opening on November 4, 2016, DOCTOR STRANGE is one of Marvel Studios' lowest domestic openers. Which is crazy to say when the film opened with $85 million. The movie took in a domestic total of $232 million.

Overseas, DOCTOR STRANGE nearly doubled its domestic total by bringing in $445 million.

Globally, the movie finished at $677 million.

Both critics and fans enjoyed the movie as its online review scores were solid, however, there were also many complaints how this origin movie mirrored that of 2008's IRON MAN a bit too much.

At the time this column was posted, there is still no word on a sequel and Cumberbatch was recently quoted by Entertainment Weekly as saying how he hasn't heard anything about DOCTOR STRANGE 2... yet. Of course, there has to be a sequel coming post- AVENGERS 4 as Mordo has now positioned himself as the villain for a sequel by going after fellow magic users to take away their power in one of the post credit scenes.

Written by Daniel Wolf, Founder & Publisher


Previous Road to Infinity War Posts:
Road to Infinity War - CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR Retrospective

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