Doctor Strange is finally becoming a reality, and that, of course, requires a script. Considering this is the first movie starring a character, really the movie writes itself: Origin, introduce iconic villain, fight, fight, fight, ending, cookie teasing the next movie. But somebody’s got to write all that pesky dialogue, and for the good doctor, that’s where Jon Spaihts comes in.
You probably know Spaihts best as the guy who got the blame for the uneven parts of Prometheus, but in truth the guy’s better known for the scripts he’s written that don’t get made. Passengers and Shadow 19 are both great scripts that just never got made, although supposedly the former is filming this year.
And, truthfully, Spaihts is a good choice for Doctor Strange, if Deadline’s claims are true. He’s got a good sense of both pomp and mysticality, not to mention the unnerving and freaky. This was the guy who wrote the scene where Noomi Rapace tries to self-abort her octopus baby, after all. If anybody knows his way around the unpleasant and disturbing, it’s this guy.
That said, we’re mostly wondering who the villain will be. Strange actually has a pretty deep villain bench, helped substantially because most of those villains can possess other villains, but it’s also a weird bench if you’re not used to Marvel comics. We’ll say Dormammu, Nightmare and Shuma-Gorath, but to non-comics-readers, they’re Not-Ghost Rider Dude, David Bowie, and That Thing From Marvel Vs. Capcom.
Also, Jon, if you’re reading? Ditch the rhyming spells. Doggerel has no place in the modern Marvel universe. Although we’ll make an exception for limericks. Doctor Strange reciting limericks would be a box office hit.