Marvel has finally cast 'Doctor Strange': It's Benedict Cumberbatch!

Joaquin Phoenix. Jared Leto. Tom Hardy. Jack Huston. Johnny Depp.

These names and many more have been swirling across the Internet for months now as actors in the running to play the title character in Marvel's Doctor Strange. Phoenix came very close to happening, but the actor reportedly passed.

According to Deadline, Marvel has at long last found its Sorcerer Supreme in the form of fan-favorite candidate Benedict Cumberbatch. Best known as Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock and Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, Cumberbatch is set to fill yet another pair of iconic boots as one of the anchors of Marvel's "Phase 3" of superhero pics that kicks off following 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron.

For the uninitiated, Doctor Stephen Strange started out as a talented neurosurgeon who lost the use of his hands in an accident, but went on to become a doctor of another kind: a master of magic and mysticism. It's believed that Marvel intends to use Doctor Strange as its initial doorway into the mystical side of the Marvel universe. (The standard superhero corner has been explored with the various Avengers films, and Guardians of the Galaxy kicked off Marvel's space-based storytelling.)

Scott Derrickson will direct Doctor Strange from a script by Jon Spaihts, with filming scheduled to begin in May of 2015. Marvel has penciled in July 8, 2016 for the movie's release date.