In conversation with Entertainment Weekly about the Avengers 3 movie, the star faced a question regarding the filming of Doctor Strange 2, which hasn’t yet been officially declared or mentioned by Marvel Studios.
“Not at the moment, no. The masterplan is continually in flux, so it would be out of order for me to speculate,” he said. The film did create a base for a villain to feature in the sequel when it showed Chiwetel Ejiofor’s character Mordo turning into a villain as seen in a post-credits sequence.
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It is deliberate that Marvel Studios hasn’t announced much beyond Avengers 4 because any announcements might spill the beans on the events of the upcoming team-up film. That’s probably why they have never gone ahead with an announcement related to Doctor Strange 2. However, it is unlikely that the studio would let pass the opportunity to make another movie starring Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, and Rachel McAdams, especially since the debut Doctor Strange film earned $677 million at the global box office.
That’s not all, but, each Marvel character that has got a solo so far, has been back for sequels, getting individual trilogies primarily featuring their own missions (with the exception of The Hulk, who did play a key role in Thor: Ragnarok, and there is a lot of rights tangle which would render a sequel very risky). In fact, even Ant-Man’s sequel is coming up. Therefore, it is logical that Cumberbatch would keep playing the Sorcerer Supreme after Avenger 4 as well.
Scott Derrickson directed Doctor Strange, and he is quite open about his sequel expectations, and how he would handle it. He earlier said that he is inspired by the Dark Knight trilogy, and wants to create powerful villains like Mads Mikkelsen’s portrayal of Kaecillius which is considered iconic by a lot of people.
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The newly acquired Doctor Strange powers lead to various possibilities to explore in a sequel, and that’s something Derrickson would touch if he does come back to make the film. “The alternate dimensions and possibilities of the multiverse that we set up with the first film already give limitless possibilities,” Derrickson had said in 2017. “What I will say is that the goal would not be to under-utilize that, or to create something that was less innovative than the first ‘Doctor Strange.’ The comics, especially the [Stan] Lee/[Steve] Ditko comics, were always pushing into unexpectedly weird places and storylines.”
The Joe and Anthony Russo directed Avengers: Infinity War has a stellar cast of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Tom Hiddleston, and Josh Brolin. The movie releases in theaters on April 27.