Kevin Feige Says Calm Down About That Doctor Strange Movie

Meditate on this. Kevin Feige is dismissing rumors of a hard list of directors who have been considered for a Doctor Strange movie, as well as the idea that Johnny Depp is inches away from starring in it.

Last Friday, The Hollywood Reporter brought us the rumor-y news that Marvel was talking to Mark Andrews (Brave), Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair), Dean Israelite (Welcome to Yesterday), and Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies). It wasn’t too unreasonable to believe: Marvel’s known for being choosy with their directors and for picking folks who are not generally known for work in the superhero genre. It also followed a new resurgence of the perennial rumor that Marvel has a star in mind for a Doctor Strange franchise, featuring the well-preserved, middle aged, dark-haired actor du jour, this time Johnny Depp.

In talking to IGN this week, Feige has dismissed both possibilities.

Well, that article [from The Hollywood Reporter] was true that we’re meeting a lot of people now. That article was not true about who we’re meeting or what level anybody is. But we’re actively looking…

…Doctor Strange would be our — well, depending on when we make it, it could be our 13th, 14th, 15th movie, right? I think if you’re looking to track our decision-making and how we’ve done things, we have a pretty wide track record now where you can sort of see. So, no, a movie star is not required, but that doesn’t mean a movie star wouldn’t be great. It just depends.

To his credit, Feige admitted that there’s a good reason why Doctor Strange has had such a history of exciting rumors that have gone no where. The project is simply one that’s been around for a long time at Marvel Entertainment.

When you have a project that’s been around as long as Doctor Strange, there is sometimes, “Oh, I’ve met with Stan about this! Or I did that!” So Strange is one of those projects that predates me by a long shot. Obviously, the character does, but even in its cinematic brewing. So there’s a lot of things that have happened before me, and I’ve been here 14 years. So that’s a long time ago. I don’t know if that happened then.

So now at least we know who isn’t being considered to direct Doctor Strange! If and when it ever becomes an actual movie.

(via /Film.)

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Susana Polo

Susana Polo thought she'd get her Creative Writing degree from Oberlin, work a crap job, and fake it until she made it into comics. Instead she stumbled into a great job: founding and running this very website (she's Editor at Large now, very fancy). She's spoken at events like Geek Girl Con, New York Comic Con, and Comic Book City Con, wants to get a Batwoman tattoo and write a graphic novel, and one of her canine teeth is in backwards.

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