Some hints for the new actor rumored to play Doctor Strange: Like previous rumor subjects Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy, he is a white fella. And he’s an Oscar winner. No, it’s not Alan Arkin. Why did your brain even go there?
According to Deadline, it’s Dallas Buyers Club‘s Jared Leto who is now on Marvel’s shortlist. He’s not Pedro Pascal, so I don’t care.
As for the writer, Marvel is reportedly “negotiating with” Jon Spaihts, best known ‘round these parts for writing an early draft of Prometheus where someone explodes during sex. He also wrote a Mummy reboot for Universal that’s languishing in development hell after director Len Wiseman headed for the hills. The only film Spaihts has actually gotten to completion is The Darkest Hour, a 2011 dystopian actioner starring Emile Hirsch that few people remember and fewer people saw. If Marvel does snag him for Doctor Strange he’ll be working with director Scott Derrickson.
In other Marvel news, Mark Ruffalo said in an interview with Digital Spy that Marvel is “entertaining the idea” of a(nother) stand-alone Hulk movie: “When we did Avengers One it was basically ‘No!’, and now I think there is some consideration for it. But there’s still nothing definitive, not even a skeletal version of what it would be. I look forward to going down that road, if we could crack that nut. I think the Banner/Hulk storyline is obviously not an easy nut to crack.”
I wouldn’t get my hopes up about the nut-crackin’, though. Remember that Marvel also says they’re doing “development work” on a Black Widow movie, and that a Black Panther movie has been “on the horizon” for over a year now. Marvel has their movies planned through 2028—they like to think ahead. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve “entertained the idea” of doing a movie about the lead craft services guy on Iron Man 2.
But! It’s not all sadness! In the same interview Ruffalo said “there’s some cool Science Bros stuff, very cool Science Bros stuff” in Age of Ultron.
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