Doctor Strange, the latest and greatest entry to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, isn’t scheduled to release in theaters until later in 2016, but the hype and speculation are already ramping up to full swing. Fueling this fire even further is the first look by Entertainment Weekly at Benedict Cumberbatch in the role — and full dress.
The cover itself is rather glorious, and certainly seems to capture the essence of Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. According to Entertainment Weekly, the shoot happened rather early into the film’s principal photography. We still don’t know the roles of everyone from the main cast, for example. Even better? The First Look cover apparently captures one of the first times Cumberbatch had actually donned the attire regularly associated with the character.
And really, Cumberbatch’s Strange is about what you’d expect the character to look like, which is great. There’s nothing forcing the Marvel movies to remain true to their source material, but sticking to the design of a character goes a long way if, say, the plot or concept were to otherwise diverge. There’s even the traditional cape with popped collar!
Given the character’s magical background, there’s a whole lot of finger-waggling expected to go on, and it’s likely that folks will pick those apart for placement, authenticity to the comics, and so on. “It was like, OK, I’ve got to keep throwing these poses, these spells, these rune-casting things, everything he does physically,” EW quotes Cumberbatch as saying about his character. “I’m thinking, there’s going to be a huge amount of speculation and intrigue over the positioning of that finger as opposed to it being there, or there. And I’m still working on that. We haven’t played any of those scenes yet. I felt really self-conscious. But, then, by the end, it was great. It’s like anything, you just have to experiment.”
Doctor Strange stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Tilda Swinton, Mads Mikkelsen, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The film is scheduled to premiere Nov. 4, 2016.
