Benedict Cumberbatch's 'Doctor Strange' Casts Sorcerer Supreme's Sidekick, Wong
Doctor Stephen Strange, the Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, will finally reach the Marvel Cinematic Universe this fall, played by Oscar-nominated actor, Benedict Cumberbatch. As the film's currently on location shooting, one major addition to the cast has been made: British actor Benedict Wong from The Martian will be playing Wong, the superhero's sidekick.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wong has been cast in, interestingly enough, the role of Wong in the Doctor Strange adaptation coming to theaters next November.
Screen Rant reports that the character, created in the 1960's, is Strange's assistant in healing as well as the occult, plus having knowledge in martial arts and a handle on the superhero's personal affairs.
He's also the character in charge of making sure Strange's body remains in good shape while he's projecting himself in an astral way to other planes, so Wong's definitely pretty important.
Wong has been with Doctor Strange since the character's first comic book appearance, and originally, he's a monk trained in martial arts who is assigned to work with Strange when he becomes The Ancient One's disciple. It's unclear whether the adaptation will retain the original back story. Seeing as the film has been in production for weeks and no announcement had been made in regards of the character, it was just assumed that it would be absent from the movie.
In any case, the actor joins an all-star cast, including Oscar winner Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo and Michael Stuhlbarg as Nicodemus West. Rachel McAdams and Mads Mikkelsen have also been cast, although the names of their roles are still unknown.
In the past few years, Wong has played a variety of pretty interesting characters, including Kublai Khan on Netflix's Marco Polo, Thompson in Duncan Jones' science fiction film, Moon, and most recently, one of the scientists in Ridley Scott's The Martian.
Doctor Strange will hit theaters on November 4.