Fans generally love Spider-Man: No Way Home. But among the Marvel hardcore, there have always been questions. Why would Doctor Strange cast a potentially dangerous, universe-altering spell just because Peter Parker asked him to? Indeed, leading up to the film, many speculated that Strange might be Mephisto in disguise, or a Skrull, or some other impostor. Because surely the real master of the mystic arts would not cavalierly undertake Strange’s No Way Home actions.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, now free from Spidey spoiler rules, actor Benedict Cumberbatch defended his character’s actions. “He’s a human being, and I think it was a very human error,” he says. “He saw Peter as a fellow foot soldier and then as a teenager going through a very formative experience of not being able to be his true self because of being exposed, and having lost a mentor, [Strange] decided to step in with a gesture of pretty good intention.”
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Also, it’s all Peter’s fault. “Everyone forgets that Peter interrupts the spell so many times, and that’s what corrupted it. That’s what lets it in. Peter, through the ability he has with his powers, affects the spell with his words. It’s not really Strange’s mistake. He’s right to want to help Peter. What kind of superhero would he be if he didn’t want to help another superhero?”
But in the end, he allows, love conquers all, saying, “That avuncular love, that genuine love, which, by the end, is another cause for a near mistake, but he rights the correction there in accepting Peter’s idea of channeling the forgetfulness into the identification of him as Peter Parker so that everyone forgets who Peter Parker is. And it’s costly to [Strange] because he cares for the guy. He says, ‘We. Everyone who loves you. We [would have no memory of you],’ and in the use of that pronoun, which was my idea to put in, he allies himself with MJ and everyone in that universe who loves Peter.”
Do you accept Cumberbatch’s defense? Let us know in comments.
Recommended Reading: Doctor Strange Vol. 1: The Way of the Weird
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