Warning: Spoilers for Doctor Strange, obviously.
Doctor Strange is out in cinemas now [read our review here] and the cast and crew have been busy talking to the press about the film. We got to speak with director Scott Derrickson, who revealed that Taika Waitti directed the mid-credits sting featuring Thor, but he’s also spoken to IGN to reveal that star Benedict Cumberbatch pulled double duty on the film.
Turns out that, while he didn’t provide the voice, Cumberbatch did the facial capture for the film’s villain Dormammu. “We knew it was an all-CG character, but as we were in production Benedict brought it up as an idea,” Derrickson said. “He said, ‘What would you think about me doing it?’ I said, ‘Let me think about it, you know.’ It’s an interesting idea, because I did fancy the idea that as this other-dimensional being he’s not moving through the Dark Dimension, with a countenance, with eyes and a face, eyes and a mouth, and a human visage – why would he? He takes that form on to communicate with Strange.”
“The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea,” he added. “Because no one understood Dormammu better than Benedict did. I also wrote that role to be a kind of ultra-inflated version of Strange. He is an ego run amok; he is this cosmic conqueror where everything, where literally everything in the multi-verse is about him.There’s something interesting about this confrontation of this little, tiny guy who has this power of time and this monstrous conqueror who is trapped by a clever gambit. There’s something about that worked well, and I didn’t think anybody to interact with Benedict than he, himself.”
SEE ALSO: Director Scott Derrickson teases Doctor Strange 2, who will the villain be?
Marvel’s Doctor Strange follows the story of the talented neurosurgeon Doctor Stephen Strange who, after a tragic car accident, must put ego aside and learn the secrets of a hidden world of mysticism and alternate dimensions. Based in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Doctor Strange must act as an intermediary between the real world and what lies beyond, utilizing a vast array of metaphysical abilities and artifacts to protect the Marvel cinematic universe.
Doctor Strange is set for release on October 25th in the UK and November 4th in the US, with Scott Derrickson (Sinister) directing a cast that includes Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) as Stephen Strange, Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer) as The Ancient One, Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) as Baron Mordo, Benedict Wong (The Martian) as Wong, Rachel McAdams (True Detective) as Christine Palmer, Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal) as Kaecilius and Benjamin Bratt (The Infiltrator) as Jonathan Pangborn.
Originally published October 26, 2016. Updated November 30, 2022.
