Just who will become Doctor Strange has been something of an open question for the last year, with the most recent rumors putting Jack Huston in the lead. But it appears the speculation might finally be ending, and the winner is…
…Joaquin Phoenix. According to Collider, it’s taken so long because, well, this is the guy who made a mockumentary about his being a coked-out b-lister:
Despite rumors to the contrary, we’re hearing that Phoenix is absolutely still in line to play Doctor Strange in the Marvel adaptation, with our source telling us that his contract is essentially at the 1 yard line, about to pass into the endzone. Though some believed the length of time it’s taken for Phoenix to finalized his deal was a sign that things might have gone south, it makes sense that an actor of Phoenix’s caliber and temperament would want to ensure that his Marvel contract doesn’t restrict his creative freedom to take on other projects outside the MCU.
If this is true, and considering Phoenix’s infamous eccentricity who knows, then it would make it clear Marvel’s looking for a certain star power for some of its more obscure properties, following on from Paul Rudd as Scott Lang in Ant-Man. That said, we won’t believe anything we hear until there’s an official announcement.