While next year’sCaptain America: Civil Warwill be Marvel’s big draw in line withMarvel’s The AvengersandAvengers: Age of Ultron, with nearly every established character in theMCUmaking an appearance, it’sDoctor Strangethat will bring in and establish yet another new character to this sprawling cinematic universe. Some have wondered how Marvel will tackle the character, since a lot has changed in our own modern culture since the introduction ofDoctor Strangein the comics. One thing is very much true. It will be a head trip. And stay firmly embedded it ins traditional weird roots.
SPOILER!Ant-Manends with a very trippy scene that is compared to the ending of2001: A Space Odyssey. And it may surprise some audiences with just how weird it gets. But according toKevin Feige, who spoke withBMDthis weekend, we haven’t seen anything yet in terms of how crazy the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to get.
“We send Ant-Man on a very weird, mind-bending journey at the end of Ant-Man. It was something we hadn’t seen in a shrinking movie before, but it also represents the tip of the mind-bending weirdness we’re going to do in Strange, which I think will surprise people.”
According to Marvel’s head honcho,Doctor Strangewill still live in Greenwich Village, as he did in the comic books. And will be the strangest thing on the streets. The area has certainly changed since 1963, whenStephen Strangewas first depicted as living there. But this isn’t really seen as a challenge for the storyline.
“The Sanctum is on Bleeker Street, the modern day Bleeker Street. He will be the strangest thing walking out onto that street.”
The idea of racial sensitivity is mentioned, withDoctor StrangeandThe Ancient Onegetting more modern origin stories not so closely tied into the Oriental mysticism that was popular in the 20th Century. Some view The Ancient One as a racist caricature. One of the ways Marvel is steering away from that is castingTilda Swintonas the character.Kevin Feigegoes onto explain.
“As we were developing this film we looked at The Ancient One as a mantle more than a specific person. The sorcerers have been around for millennia, protecting us from things we didn’t know about until this story. There have been multiple [Ancient Ones], even if this one has been around for five hundred years, there were others. This is a mantle, and therefore felt we had leeway to cast in interesting ways.”
Most fans view these changes as necessary to keep the characters current and fresh. Add to this, a lot of today’s Marvel movie fans are not that familiar with the characters or their background.Birth Movies Deathhas more withKevin FeigeaboutDoctor Strangeand his quest that sends him East. What do you think? Is this movie heading in the right direction?
