Marvel movies have a fairly typical formula: The origin story is the first movie, to get that out of the way for the people who just can’t accept “This person can do amazing things” without knowing why, also known as the “Filmgoers Are Stupid” principle in Hollywood. The second movie then gets to the stuff you really want to see. Thankfully, according to rumor, Doctor Strange will be shaking things up.
Granted, this should be taken with a small dose of salt as it comes courtesy of nerd gossip Devin Faraci of Badass Digest, but man, do we want this to be true. Here’s the relevant video, found by ComicBookMovie, and the comments start at 52:11.
Marvel’s new thing is no more origin stories. So, Dr. Strange movie no longer has an origin. It begins in medias res.
Yep, no origin story. We don’t have to hear about how Stephen Strange, arrogant surgeon, wasn’t satisfied just saving people’s lives as a brilliant doctor and sought out a mystical cure that instead made him the Sorcerer Supreme. Marvel is skipping all that, possibly because of that whole thing where his origin makes him sound like an even bigger dickhead than he actually is. It’ll probably come up once or twice, likely in a flashback or two, but it’s not going to be the primary focus of the movie.
And you know what? Good. Origin stories are completely unnecessary in the movies. Seriously, Superman’s an alien, Batman’s a rich kid with issues, Spider-Man got his powers in the world’s most idiotic lab accident, this can be taken care of in five minutes. Hopefully this establishes a trend with Marvel, because man, we really want these series to start with the good stuff.