Benedict Cumberbatch was Originally Offered a Very Different MCU Role
It is incredibly hard to imagine him playing anyone else, but a recent interview revealed that Benedict Cumberbatch was originally offered a very different MCU role.
There are few Marvel roles that have come to be so defined by the individual who has taken up the character; from Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark to Chris Evans’s Captain America, there are certain actors now synonymous with those personas.
Source: Marvel Studios
It appears as though that sort of transcendent within a character is slowly occurring with veteran actor Benedict Cumberbatch in his portrayal of the iconic Marvel sorcerer, Doctor Strange.
A well-traveled actor, Cumberbatch has continually made a name for himself throughout various films and franchises; being so long revered for his brilliant portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, and then carrying that success over to memorable outings as villains like Kang in the Star Trek franchise.
Source: Marvel Studios
With all of his work and accolades, it appears as though- slowly but surely- Cumberbatch is entering the rarified air of some of the MCU’s most iconic performers; the Hemsworth, Evans, and Downey’s of the world.
But the very strange reality is that this all could maybe have never been; as in a recent interview, it came to light that Benedict Cumberbatch was originally offered a much different MCU role.
Source: Marvel Studios
In an interview with BBC Radio 1 (as reported by ComicBook.com) Cumberbatch talks about the character that MArvel originally sought him out to portray, and it was a short-lived villain in one f other MCU’s poorest received films.
“[The Doctor Strange role] happened as an idea muted after, funnily enough, another little dance I did for another character in the MCU, a very brief character,” Cumberbatch stated, after then confirming it was the role of Malekith in Thor: The Dark World.
Source: Marvel Studios
Cumberbatch continued by stating, “I was bold enough to say, ‘I’m really flattered to be invited to the party, but I’d rather hold out for something a bit juicier.”
Thank goodness that he did, as Cumberbatch has proven- through the undeniable success of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness– that his tenure as Strange has proven monumentally important to the transitional Phase Four of the MCU.
Source: Marvel Studios
