In addition to the many versions of Doctor Strange seen in the What If…? series, the Sorcerer Supreme will soon return in live-action in Spider-Man: No Way Home on-screen. But it will still take a while before Stephen Strange’s next solo adventure as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness won’t debut before 2022. And it seems that star Benedict Cumberbatch had good synergy with Spider-Man director Sam Raimi, who stepped up after Scott Derrickson left the project and invited Cumberbatch to improvise on set.
“With the first film, you’re always locked into a script, because it’s the origin story,” the actor said while talking with THR. “But there was a lot more freedom this time around. I guess, because we were … not literally making it up as we go along, but sometimes it feels like that. Marvel has this amazing ability to come into production: ‘We really just have to start shooting now. It doesn’t matter that the third act is not quite where you want it to be.’ You really do things on a wing and a prayer sometimes.”
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The 45-year-old actor then revealed that he already has a history of improvising. In 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, he came up with a line that was off-script, calling Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man a douchebag.
“I remember on the set when I called him a douchebag, there was this sort of ripple effect. ‘Oh my God. Did you just call Iron Man a douchebag?’ They kept it, good for them. And then, it got the same kind of response at the cinema. I was just … I got bored of being compared to Liberace or whatever other retorts the guy with the same camp goatee had opposite me, so I tried to knock him down. It’s great fun to play with that stuff. You find your feet. The more times you do it, the more familiar it becomes.”
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness debuts in theaters on March 25, 2022.
What do you think about Cumberbatch improvising some of his lines as Stephen Strange? Let us know in the comments down below!
Recommended Reading: Doctor Strange Vol. 1: The Way of the Weird
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