New Doctor Strange Photos And Character Posters [Updated With Three More]

Kevin Feige tells us about Rachel McAdams' character Christine Palmer:

We wanted a grounded character. We wanted a character that was a connection to Strange's life in New York City, in the normal world. Somebody that could be his anchor to the real world, to his present in the beginning of the film, and by the time he re-encounters her, wearing that, someone who can comment on his transformation as a character. This cast as you all know is shockingly amazing, and Rachel, who's finished 99% of her role – perfect timing so she can spend time at the Academy Awards now, we planned it like that – is great and can bring again a grounded reality to the character of Strange at the beginning of the film and of course as she encounters some odd and strange and other-wordly when he, encounters her late in the movie, you believe it. You believe that her reaction to what she is seeing like, say, an astral form or somebody that she used to know as an arrogant surgeon. Her reaction is funny but you also buy it.

Director Scott Derrickson talks about why he loves Doctor Strange:

I love the comics so much and I grew up reading Marvel Comics.  And Doctor Strange is my favorite comic book character probably I think honestly the only comic book I would feel personally suited to work on.  And for me it was my long standing love for Doctor Strange comes from first of all, the fantastical visual imagery of all the comics, particularly the early Ditko stuff, Into Shamballa, The Oath, a lot of the images that I have picked are from those three sources.  And then individual issues. Thematically the loneliness of that character, I always really liked the idea of a character who had gone through so much trauma and was placed into a position between our world and other worlds, other dimensions literally.  That's a lonely position.  I like that.

Kevin Feige explains how Mordo is different in this movie from the comics:

Portrayed by Chiwetel Ejiofor, he is Strange's advocate in the beginning of the movie. The Ancient One doesn't necessarily see the potential in Strange that Morodo does, and Morodo is the one who talks the Ancient One into allowing him in. And for this film, he is a partner of Strange, and he is a mentor to Strange. You know that was something we wanted to play against in the comics. Because in the comics for as unbelievably creative and full of imagination as they are – we are desperate to recreate in cinematic form – there's some things that are too obvious for modern day audiences. The jealous rival named Baron von Mordo, who turns against him when he shows any signs of talent – we specifically didn't want to do that. It's one of the reasons we cast Chiwe because we wanted to have someone who had sort of unbelievable authenticity in delivering a lot of wackadoo lines and exposition.

Kevin Feige explains why The Ancient One role was updated for the film:

We talked about the Ancient One being a title that has been held probably for hundreds and hundreds of years by individuals, but there've been various ones, and the one we meet in this movie happens to be a female of Celtic descent, who most people, even those who surround her, have forgotten exactly where she came from because she's been around. I think we state in the movie hundreds and hundreds of years – they're not sure exactly how long. So that was one way of doing a new interpretation of that character.

Benedict Cumberbatch talks about his character Stephen Strange:

He's like most of us, he's uncorrupted flesh from the beginning of his life, he's somebody who's not marked with original sin or any kind of crap like that. He's somebody who's come into this world and had experiences that have shaped him to the point that we first meet him. There's always got to be leverage. I think there is some clear explanation of that within this film, but potentially further down the line...for more of that to come out as well. He's difficult, he's arrogant, but he's kind of brilliant and charming and you'd think, "Yeah, I'd want him on my head if I needed brain surgery."  He's good enough to warrant his arrogance and he respects other people but not when he thinks he's right and he'll just do what he deems needs to be done when he knows or feels that he's right and the problem from humility's point of view is that he is right, he's really really good at his job.

Benedict Cumberbatch talks about the story arc for his character:

Someone who lives in New York, is a top neurosurgeon, top pay, but more meritocratic maybe than someone with the skill and the hard work, junior doctor, junior surgeon, now a top neurosurgeon who has earned his way into the top pay of society, to have nothing. Nothing at all. No spiritual center, no hands, no money, nobody in his life he will let near him, to care for him anymore, and then he has to build himself up again from the very bottom and he's a desperate man by the time he reaches Kathmandu. As he goes into this thing which is a million miles away from any world view or belief system he's ever entertained, so it's desperation that leads him to the path of the Ancient One and the spiritual...and then all hell breaks loose.

Director Scott Derrickson talks about the ambition of the movie:

I'm surprised that I'm getting to make it.  Because I keep feeling like these set pieces... someone's gonna say, it's too bizarre.  It's too weird.  We're going too far.  And I feel as though we crossed a line at some point in the process, which the comics I think were the inspiration to try to go past certain boundaries.  But we crossed a line and after crossing that line we just kept going.  It all kept getting stranger and stranger not to be, I didn't mean that as a pun, but it all just kept getting more bizarre.  And in a good way, in a way that as a viewer I think I would be satisfied by.

Director Scott Derrickson talks about trying to present magic in a different way for this movie:

The starting point was what kind of things have we not seen in cinema?  That we could, was almost working backwards.  What kind of imagery, what kind of action could be created in cinema that we haven't seen and I started from that place and looked for a way to tie that in to magic.  And some of those ideas didn't tie in well and some of those ideas tied in surprisingly well.  The ones that tied in really well, those became the major set pieces for the movie.