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Apologies for the Upworthy-style headline. You probably immediately guessed who Johnny Depp could play. Doctor Strange is the obvious casting, and we’ve been hearing rumors of a Doctor Strange movie in 2016 as part of Marvel’s Phase 3 for awhile. Now Latino Review — source of many of the previous Doctor Strange rumors — says Johnny Depp has met with Marvel about the role.
The 50-year-old actor is a comic book fan, and is said to be very interested in jumping onto the Marvel machine. Johnny Depp also happens to have a very fruitful relationship with Marvel’s owner, Disney. […] While they have Depp on the hook for another Pirates film, it is believed they would shift that production around if he does agree to sign on the dotted line for Marvel.
Latino Review adds that, although the original script called for a 30-year-old to play Doctor Strange, they’d gladly rewrite it to land a star of Johnny Depp’s caliber. As for that script, last we heard it would be an origin story in which Strange deals with the guilt of letting his sister die. In other words, it seems they’ll make him slightly less of a bastard just as they cast Paul Rudd as the less wife beat-y Ant-Man and cast Michael Douglas as Hank Pym to hand over the superhero responsibilities to a (less wife beat-y) successor.
We’re hoping this rumor proves to be true, as we can’t imagine anyone more obvious for the role. I mean, just look at the banner picture. It’s like he’s already wearing his Doctor Strange casual attire. He takes off some of the jewelry and puts on a luxurious cape only when he means business. And business is good.
(Banner via Getty Images.)
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Could be good. If only Doctor Strange had more than just being the go to magic guy in the Marvel Universe.
I’m just going to assume that Dr. Strange is the story of a plastic surgeon who likes anonymous sex and go about the rest of my day.
NO. No more goddamned origin stories. RRRRRRAAAAAAAARRGGGGGGHHHH
How will we ever get a Shang Chi movie then!?
I . . . Dammit/i>.
+1 to Coked Up Jesus
Also: Donny Yen as Shang Chi or GTFO
Sarah Jessica Parker as Fing Fang Foom or GTFO
*mouthfart* The whole time I was reading the story I was thinking of Hugo Strange (also a doctor!) and thinking, “Uuuhh… really? I mean, I /guess/ I can see it, if I squint and he takes elocution lessons…”
I can almost see this working… hmmm, no, no I am not sure how I feel about this… I’ll come back to you.
I assume the final negotiations involve how much of the movie Depp is allowed to wear a funny hat.
Why do we still give Latino Review the time of day? Their “exclusive” stories on upcoming superhero movies prove inaccurate, time and time again.
Because clicks.
And if we don’t start ignoring Latino Review and their complete lack of journalistic integrity, they’ll never go away.
fun fact: that site was actually named after its editorial process
That’s the only way I can see Doctor Strange working. Well apart from casting Nicolas Cage of course
It’s a shame Fassbender is already Magneto. Slap a goatee on him and he’s perfect to play Strange.
Takes someone with a tenuous grip on reality deliver a line like “By the hoary hosts of Hoggoth!”
I would love to see Nicolas Cage challenge Depp to a Starnge-off
One is a goatee’d man covered in bizarre jewelry, talismans, and ostentatious finery and the other is Doctor Strange.
Can we just call this “too perfect” and have him play “Linus ‘Microchip’ Lieberman” instead? He’s a H4XX0R on t3h STERRHOIDS!!!
Any chance of a Dr Fate movie on the other side of the comic book divide.
Ugh, punctuation fail and no edit button.
I just thought you meant Dr Fate had the same degree as Dr Pepper.
Instead of ending with “And business is good” you should’ve ended with “and bidness is booming.”
Also I don’t give two shits about superhero movies anymore.
Wait a second . . . I followed a link from FilmDrunk to this site, which is MOSTLY dedicated to comic books!
I feel like an ass.
I think you’re safe, comic book nerds don’t read the internet.
its getting to be time we moved on from these silly super hero films … the future is not going to be very kind to this generation of kiddy-movie lovers
Or….they can keep making them, and people who don’t want to watch them can just…not watch them?
Just because Marvel came up with a character doesn’t mean a movie needs to be made about that character. Nobody buys Dr. Strange comics so who would go see this movie?
If they can make money on a Dark Shadows movie just by strapping Depp to it and shoving it off a shitty cliff then they’re not going to stop giving him every whimsical dark property there is.
I don’t think Dark Shadows did well. And I’m not down on Dr. Strange. I’ve always liked the character, but I like Daredevil, Elektra, the Punisher, Spawn, and the Green Lantern too.
I also think Johnny Depp can be great (Donnie Brasco), but if the check clears, he’s on board (Pirates of The Caribbean: I Want to Hang Out With Roger Daltrey Make that Shit Happen).
I don’t trust Disney to get Dr. Strange right. He’s not a splosion, splosion, one-liner character. I’d rather they skip the whole thing than do it wrong.
It didn’t do well here by Burton’s standards, only 80 million, but they released it the week after Avengers because Hollywood doesn’t make mistakes. Was massive internationally and made 250 total, cleared over 100m in profit. He’s a gigantic international star, which is why even Lone Ranger made close to 250 globally.
Mind you I don’t disagree with you at all I’m just saying that even Depp’s bombs have sold a ton of tickets worldwide, and with the Marvel imprint on there it’s going to get more eyes. Take Dark Shadows again, doing 160 internationally was kind of absurd given that movie and property but in almost all those big markets it was second only to Avengers. Disney will see that and think well shit let’s slap the two together. It’s not a movie that needs to be made, but Depp and Marvel together would have to be fucked up real bad to not sell tickets even if it’s a more distant character like Strange.
I always wanted Depp to play Gambit before they ruined everything by randomly throwing him into the Wolverine movie
Actually, this is weird, Marvel isn’t known for casting the OBVIOUS choices, they seem to always go with a wild card and it works out perfectly for them.
In fact if I was casting, Oscar Issac or Clifton Collins Jr. seems like the perfect Stephen Strange to me.
Clifton Collins, Jr. is massively underrated.
I call bull shit. This is far from Marvel’s MO. When Marvel does origins movies, they cast young actors who they can hire on the cheap. They don’t want to pay actors 40 million dollars unless they have to (see Robert Downey Jr, they’ve never made a deal like that one since) and Johnny Depp doesn’t come cheap. Marvel just doesn’t cast like this.
Also, it’s Latino Review who seemingly just sit around and make up semi-believable rumors all day and hope that something sticks.
Ed Norton too (though that failing would be an argument in favor of them not going that route again I suppose). One thing though would be DC going with Affleck, maybe Marvel sees that and says alright you wan’t to cast a big established star in a role well we’re going to get Mr. Mo’bangles.
Maybe Depp would be cheap. Maybe, being an already rich comic book fan who doesn’t do any old movie anymore and seems to pick characters he likes rather than a dumptruck full of money, he’s negotiating for a piece of the end result rather than an upfront paycheck.
The movie does well, everyone’s happy, Depp gets a big check and a big payday in Avengers 3. The movie flops, nobody talks about it any more and it’s the first bad Marvel movie in a decade
Get whatever you want to play Strange, just get Steve Rattazzi to voice him.
Is “Professor Accessories” a character?
Doctor Strange is about as close to that as it gets. Comics he’s in of late literally list what accessory he’s using to case what spell with every single thing he does.
Can we get an actor who’s not just a collection of quirks for the role?
Oh boy. Johnny Depp already makes all his characters strange. If he plays DOCTOR Strange the over-strange-ifying might kill him.
The porn parody practically writes itself.
Yeah it’s all well and good until he says “Gore Verbinski directs this or I fucking walk”
Tim Burton
While I wouldn’t be opposed to this if it’s official, I still have to say it should be Oded Fehr. He’d kill it.
johnny depp