You not may have heard about this little movie called Doctor Strange coming out in two weeks, but it's getting some pretty positive reviews on the internet. It follows Stephen Strange, a man who sets out to learn the ways of the mystic arts and eventually become the defender of our planet from inter-dimensional threats. Along the way to becoming a powerful sorcerer, he also gets totally ripped. Doctor Strange has as muscular a body as any superhero, and actor Benedict Cumberbatch recently described what his hero training regime was like.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Benedict Cumberbatch detailed his own personal workout routine for becoming a superhero. Every actor in the MCU has to go through hell and back to get their superheroic physique (Chris Hemsworth wasn't born jacked like that), and Cumberbatch was no different. Instead of hitting the weights for hours on end, Cumberbatch went with a slower but focused approach, consisting of a steady diet and exercise over a long period of time.
Benedict Cumberbatch calls this the Shakespeare diet because he first started training while he was performing Hamlet in London. He'd do an hour of training in the morning, and then rehearse Hamlet all day. Then once the show was up and running, he'd train in the morning, go to the studio to rehearse Doctor Strange, and then go back to perform Hamlet. According to Cumberbatch, "Hamlet was like a three-hour cardiovascular [workout]," and he got into peak physical condition during that time; all the stunt work on Doctor Strange didn't hurt either.
You don't think of Doctor Strange as someone who needs his body to be Captain America levels of fit, but I suppose it just comes with the territory. Strange is pretty anti-physical -- his punches come from his thoughts more than his fists. This live action version of Doctor Strange seems more hands on his comics counterpart. We know that in the film Strange is instructed in martial arts alongside magic, so he can basically beat you up in any plane of existence.
Doctor Strange is bowing in theaters in just a few short weeks on November 4.
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Matt has lived in New Jersey his entire life, but commutes every day to New York City. He graduated from Rowan University and loves Marvel, Nintendo, and going on long hikes and then greatly wishing he was back indoors. Matt has been covering the entertainment industry for over two years and will fight to his dying breath that Hulk and Black Widow make a good couple.