There's magic afoot, with Marvel's Kevin Feige confirming to MTV that Phase Three in the cinematic universe will feature Doctor Strange.
The magician, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in the '60s, has long been mooted for the movie treatment, and looks like he's going to get it (eventually).
A neurosurgeon who loses control of his hands, Dr Stephen Strange headed to the Himalayas where he was taught mystic arts, and he later became known as the 'the mightiest magician in the cosmos.'
With Marvel refusing to rest on their laurels, the line-up for Phase Three won't just be a re-run of Phase Two, and will feature a different breed of superhero (it's not all about bemuscled beefcakes, y'know?)
First up is Edgar Wright's Ant-Man . Feige told MTV , " Ant-Man is definitely part of Phase Three. Like Iron Man 3 , it's certainly set in the Marvel Universe, but it's also through the lens of Edgar Wright - which is the only reason we're making the movie.
"I've known Edgar since our first lunch together at Comic-Con in 2004. He asked me what Marvel was doing with Ant-Man - we weren't even a studio then; what a difference eight years makes! It's very much an Ant-Man origin movie from the perspective of Edgar Wright and his co-writer Joe Cornish. It will of course be firmly planted in the MCU [ Marvel Cinematic Universe ], but a different corner than we've seen before."
Feige went on to say that post- Avengers 2 , Marvel will be looking beyond the core guys in that group. When MTV pressed to ask if Doctor Strange could be part of those plans, Feige responded, "Doctor Strange, which I've been talking about for years, is definitely one of them.
"He's a great, original character, and he checks the box off this criteria that I have: he's totally different from anything else we have, just like Guardians Of The Galaxy . He's totally different from anything we've done before, as is Ant-Man , which keeps us excited."
We'd expect Strange's magic to be dealt with in a similar way to Thor's (rooting it loosely in science), but we won't know for sure for some years yet. With The Avengers 2 set to open on 1 May 2015, Phase Three is still a way off...
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