Despite almost passing on the job a couple of years back, Benedict Cumberbatch seems as energized as ever for the future of Doctor Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The entertainer has played Marvel’s mystic hero since 2016 and he’s set to reprise the job twice in the next couple of months. He will show up as the Sorcerer Supreme in Spider-Man: No Way Home on December seventeenth, trailed by a starring turn in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness next year.
Nothing about Cumberbatch’s future in the MCU has been confirmed beyond those two movies, yet the entertainer doesn’t have any plans to leave just yet.
In an interview related to his new film The Power of the Dog, Cumberbatch was asked about his job in the MCU after Multiverse of Madness. He obviously couldn’t say anything specific with regards to his future in the franchise, however he was sure to say that he needed to stick around as long as the stories are fresh and exciting.
“As long as the person is interesting and challenging and doing fantastic things in the MCU, why not?” asked Cumberbatch.
Cumberbatch’s Strange has filled the job of the Sorcerer Supreme in the MCU, practicing the mystical arts and keeping the world safe from otherworldly threats. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, notwithstanding, Doctor Strange will be taking on an alternate job. He will play the tutor to Peter Parker, a job that has been filled in previous films by Tony Stark, Nick Fury, and Happy Hogan.
“There’s a shade of the [Tony] Stark relationship… It’s not as intimate in any case,” Cumberbatch told Empire recently. “Because of how encountered a superhero he is, it’s a strange dynamic and it kind of shifts into something undeniably more parental and remedial. And then it shifts again.”
While he’s playing a supporting part in No Way Home, with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker as the film’s star, Doctor Strange will take the spotlight once again in his second solo film next year. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness sees original Spider-Man movie producer Sam Raimi takeover as chief, Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch fighting alongside Stephen for the first time (not counting the final fight in Avengers: Endgame).