Earlier this year, Benedict Cumberbatch dropped a surprising update on his MCU return as Doctor Strange, appearing to confirm that he wouldn't be a part of Avengers: Doomsday, but would be back as the (former) Sorcerer Supreme for Secret Wars.
The Sherlock actor indicated that Strange's involvement in the next big MCU event movie was rendered unnecessary when plans pivoted from Kang to Doctor Doom after Jonathan Majors' firing.
"Is that a spoiler? F*** it!" Cumberbatch told Variety after mentioning that he would not be a part of Doomsday. "The character [was] not aligning with this part of the story."
Cumberbatch has since walked back his comments, however, claiming that the good doctor will factor into the movie after all.
Business Insider spoke to the actor on the red carpet for the premiere of The Thing With Feathers at the Sundance Film Festival, and asked if he'd received any sternly-worded emails from Marvel Studios higher-up after dropping the Doomsday news.
"I got that wrong, I am in the next one," Cumberbatch responded. "Don't ever believe anything I say."
So, either Strange is in Doomsday and Cumberbatch didn't realize (seems unlikely), or he did get a bit of a telling off and is now having some fun with the whole thing (wouldn't be the first time).
Whatever the case may be, the actor still isn't willing to confirm - or deny - his involvement.
All Cumberbatch would say to ET when asked if he'd be suiting-up as Strange for Doomsday is: "I wonder... I wonder, I wonder."
Possible spoilers follow.
During last week's episode of The Hot Mic, Jeff Sneider said he heard that Strange will be "working with" Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday.
We wouldn't be at all surprised if this was accurate, but will it be our Strange or a Multiversal variant? We have heard that Doom will use the fact that he so closely resembles Tony Stark to his advantage by infiltrating other realities with his group of "evil" Avengers variants, but this wouldn't necessarily mean that Earth 616's Doctor Strange won't decide to change allegiances.
At the end of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Clea (Charlize Theron) shows up and recruits Strange to investigate the incursions that have begun to occur around the Multiverse. If Doom's mission is indeed to prevent these incursions, hero and villain may find themselves forming an unlikely alliance.
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were recently hit with significant delays, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
You can check out the full (for now) Doomsday cast list below.
• Paul Rudd as Ant-Man
• Simu Liu as Shang-Chi
• Tom Hiddleston as Loki
• Lewis Pullman as Sentry
• Florence Pugh as Yelena
• Danny Ramirez as Falcon
• Ian McKellen as Magneto
• Sebastian Stan as Bucky
• Winston Duke as M’Baku
• Chris Hemsworth as Thor
• Kelsey Grammer as Beast
• James Marsden as Cyclops
• Channing Tatum as Gambit
• Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
• Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm
• Rebecca Romijn as Mystique
• Patrick Stewart as Professor X
• Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler
• Letitia Wright as Black Panther
• Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor
• Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards
• Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost
• Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm
• David Harbour as Red Guardian
• Robert Downey Jr as Doctor Doom
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing
• Anthony Mackie as Captain America