Doctor Strange is going on hiatus in the next Marvel sequel, “Avengers: Doomsday,” according to a spoiler-happy, secret-spilling Benedict Cumberbatch.
“Is that a spoiler?” the actor asked Variety in a recent interview. “F— it!”
Speaking of no effs to give, the Oscar-nominated “The Imitation Game” and “The Power of the Dog” star also helped explain a “good WTF,” thanks to Marvel and Robert Downey Jr.’s surprise announcement at Comic-Con last summer that Downey would be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as someone other than Iron Man.
Cumberbatch found out about Downey’s Marvel homecoming while watching live coverage of the 2024 Comic-Con presentation. So, according to Variety, he immediately grabbed his phone and sent a message to Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige.
“I texted, ‘What the f—?’ and then quickly added, ‘Good what-the-f—. I mean, good what-the-f—,’” the 48-year-old star told the outlet.
For Cumberbatch, Downey’s return is a good WTF that would keep things light on set, despite the pressure of making the multimillion-dollar movies, he said. The British actor, whose parents also were thespians, told Variety that Downey would refer to him as “Mr. Shakespeare” and make quips about them both playing literary detective Sherlock Holmes onscreen. (Unfortunately, a meta line about their past roles didn’t make it into the film, he said.)
The “Sherlock” and “Star Trek Into Darkness” star, who joined the MCU with 2016’s “Doctor Strange,” said watching Downey play billionaire playboy Tony Stark and hearing his banter with Spider-Man Tom Holland in 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” helped him take a looser approach to his character, whom he believes he played too stiffly in early appearances.
“I learned a lot by seeing how at ease and improvisatory they are,” Cumberbatch said. “It’s hard because you have this huge apparatus around you, but it’s so important.”
Cumberbatch, along with his SunnyMarch production company, has been leaning slightly toward “European sort of world cinema” with his latest projects, including “The Thing With Feathers, which premieres at this week’s Sundance Film Festival, and Netflix’s “Eric” and “Roses.” Although the Marvel films take time away from his auteur-driven projects, Cumberbatch describes the franchise — with its 34 films and counting — as “the modern myths of our times” and appreciates how the epics “transport” audiences to different worlds.
“Yes, it’s huge and unwieldy, but Marvel is so committed to getting it right,” Cumberbatch said. “Even when we make one of these Avengers films and it gets exponentially huger, we’re still just kids playing in the sand pit. We’re still just making s— up and having fun with it.”
Oscar winner Downey famously launched the blockbuster MCU when he starred as the title superhero in the 2008 comic-book adaptation “Iron Man.” He concluded his run as the lead Avenger when his character sacrificed himself to save the universe in 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame.” Downey is set to take on the role of the villainous Victor von Doom, a.k.a. “Doctor Doom,” a character who originated in Marvel’s “Fantastic Four” comic books. The new villain in “Doomsday” is believed to be a variant of Stark, according to reports.
Alas, with all that groundwork to lay, rebooted “Fantastic Four” characters to introduce this summer and a reported return of Chris Evans to the MCU, “Doomsday” is getting awfully crowded. So, it appears, Cumberbatch’s neurosurgeon-turned-Sorcerer Supreme will not return in the May 2026 film. Although “momentarily horrified by his candor” about that plot point, Cumberbatch proceeded to spill the beans about the ultra-secretive studio’s plans for the next phase of Marvel movies.
The actor explained that much had to change when Jonathan Majors was fired last year after being convicted of assault. Majors, who played the enigmatic villain Kang the Conqueror, was lined up to be the main antagonist in the upcoming installments, but the studio had to pivot after letting him go.
Enter: Downey’s big bad Doctor Doom. With that reshuffle, Cumberbatch, whose character last appeared in 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” said he won’t be in “Doomsday” because his character is “not aligning with this part of the story.”
Again acknowledging that he probably shouldn’t be saying it, Cumberbatch revealed that his Doctor Strange is “in a lot” of the “Doomsday” sequel “Avengers: Secret Wars,” which is slated for theatrical release in 2027. Both films will be directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, who co-directed the climactic “Infinity War” and “Endgame” installments.
“[Doctor Strange is] quite central to where things might go,” Cumberbatch said, hinting that the character will appear in a third stand-alone film.
He also praised the Disney-owned studio for being collaborative, saying that it was open to discussing where Doctor Strange goes next, who he would want to write and direct the forthcoming film, and what part of the character’s comic lore he would want to explore “so that Strange can keep evolving.”
“He’s a very rich character to play. He’s a complex, contradictory, troubled human who’s got these extraordinary abilities, so there’s potent stuff to mess about with,” Cumberbatch said.
