Roughly two years from now, Earth's mightiest heroes -- the Avengers -- will band together one more time to face off against a mighty foe, this time Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his Infinity Stones. But there will be a few new faces joining the Avengers on this mission, as Spider-Man, Star-Lord and Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange are expected to be in the mix by the time Infinity War rolls around. That doesn't mean, however, that these new heroes in the MCU will be fully charged and ready for battle just because they're suddenly Avengers in name only. When it comes to the Sorcerer Supreme, in fact, Marvel President Kevin Feige warns:
He's not all powerful. Without giving too much away, he's not an expert when he faces off against the things he has to face off with in this movie, even toward the end of the movie. So there's a learning curve for him, which is always fun for all of the heroes -- and they face a pretty tough dude in the next Avengers movie.
Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is an egotistical neurosurgeon who suffers a debilitating car accident and loses the use of his hands -- his most precious tools -- as a result. His quest to find a medical cure for his ailment unlocks doors to the mystical realms, via training by The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton). But nowhere in that bio does it suggest that Doctor Strange WANTS to be a superhero.
We assume that by the end of Scott Derrickson's Doctor Strange that he'll be the might Marvel hero we have come to know from the comics. I mean, just look at this breathtaking image in the sorcerer's Sanctum Sanctorum!
But it's kind of refreshing to hear that Strange won't be a master of sorcery by the end of his origin movie, according to these quotes given to IGN, meaning that he will have plenty of room to grow. We actually expect to see Stephen Strange surface in at least one more Marvel movie in 2017 (Thor: Ragnarok, if the rumors are to be believed), so we will be able to see the hero evolve before Avengers: Infinity War finally hits in May 2018.
What do we really want to see? Well, we want Benedict Cumberbatch to play off of Robert Downey Jr. in an ego-off, of course. But we also want to see how Strange's unique powers fit into the MCU, as a whole. Spider-Man, Hawkeye and Black Widow will be ground level heroes. Iron Man and Captain America are enhanced humans. What Strange can command is unheard of, and the way the MCU uses him will be very exciting.
Doctor Strange opens in theaters on November 4. Avengers: Infinity Way doesn't open until May 4, 2018, which feels like an eternity.
