This is what true happiness feels like. That moment when everything makes sense, there is no crime, there is no pain, there is no fear, there is only… Tilda Swinton. And Benedict Cumberbatch. Together. On screen. YES! Ever since Marvel announced that they would doing Doctor Strange, there has been a quiet conversation about who should be cast as “the Ancient One,” the person who mentored Doctor Strange in the Dark Arts. In the comic books, the Ancient One was a man (and Tibetan). In the film, Marvel is thinking outside the box and they’re in talks with Tilda Swinton. TILDA. As Bendy’s mentor. Please let this happen.
Tilda Swinton is on her way to the Marvel Universe. The actress is in negotiations to join Benedict Cumberbatch in Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange, being directed by Scott Derrickson. Strange is Marvel’s supernatural hero, a formerly cocky surgeon who loses the use of his hands, and while on a last ditch attempt to heal himself, discovers magic.
Strange’s mentor is a Tibetan mystic known as the Ancient One, who is training pupils to be the next sorcerer supreme. In the comics, the character has been a male, and Marvel Studios initially was searching for a male actor. But the studio rethought the role and has now made it female. If a deal makes, Swinton will play the Ancient One. Strange has a release date of Nov. 4, 2016. The movie is due to begin shooting November in the U.K. Kevin Feige is producing.
If Tilda is eventually cast – and let’s be honest, I really hope this deal goes through – I’m sure there will be significant and justified criticism of the white-washed cast. But a thought occurred to me just now, as I was writing: Marvel probably didn’t want to hire a Tibetan actor or an Asian actor-playing-Tibetan because they want all of their movies to play big in China. China probably would have banned this movie if they had a Tibetan actor or some kind of Tibetan-intensive storyline. I’m just saying, there could be bigger things at play here than a studio doing a default white-washing.
As for Tilda playing a character that goes by the Ancient One, a character that was originally supposed to be a dude? Awesome. She’s the only person I can see in the role now. TILDA & BENDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I was meh on Dr Strange not knowing much about the character and not sure how much of the Marvel humour would be in it but this is intriguing casting!
@lindy79 Yellowbirds seems to have fallen off the map as for Flying Horse Gary Oldman is having trouble with funding. And for The Ancient One according to Marvel’s wiki it is also a collective group so Tilda could be an Ancient One but not The Ancient One if that makes sense.
I love Tilda but ugh on the white washing.
The thing is, I know that this is whitewashing, and I agree that it’s problematic and all, but keeping things as they were in the comics also leaves a bad taste in my mouth – in the source material, the character is a western cliche of an Asian medic (it’s pretty cringey stuff). Worse, Strange has a manservant called Wong, which is flat-out wrong (!).
Replacing POC with white people is always dangerous, but updating stuff, and doing away with terrible cliches is necessary in this case. I guess they should probably replace offensive characters with decent accurate POCs, but I wonder how adept Marvel Studios really is at navigating things like race & colour.
Still, SWINTON! Love her! ❤️
Very good point.
I agree with this. I think moving away from stereotypes and cliches is actually a good thing, which is more harmful, imo, than casting a person who’s inspiring for a role. I love the gender swap.
Considering how censors in China cut up the Pirate of the Caribbean At World’s End because they didn’t like one character in it, I can see why they might rethink from that angle. The Chinese government gets pissy about any hint of Tibet that isn’t praising them for what they’ve done to it and its people.
If only this were Tilda and Joaquin. She’ll be fun to watch in this role. I still maintain that he’s miscast.
I so agree. It should have been Joaquin. But still, Tilda! Be still my heart!
I’ll have to wait and see before I decide whether his casting was a good idea, but I didn’t think Joaquin was right. Can’t do promo and quite frankly his cocky tends to come off as sleazy these days.
I agree!
I’ve gotten to accept Bender as Strange. From here, we’ll see what goes. I don’t think it’s good to dwell on what could have been. If I did that, I wouldn’t have enjoyed Only Lovers Left Alive (should have been Fassy) or look forward to Crimson Peak (should have been Cumberbatch).
I will move on. I will put Joaquin out of the picture. I know roles are re-cast all the time. That said, Cumberbatch is going to have to convince me. I have repeatedly tried to see in him this great actor whom others claim is in there but so far I’ve only seen someone who is great at playing the same basic character. He has demonstrated no range to me.
I agree. He’s good at his niche type of characterization, but he definitely has very limited range. He’s being rumored for yet another biopic about yet another genius. His choices are so boring and part of me wonders if he makes choices because of his limitations or if he makes choices on the limitation of role offers. Who knows. Until he pushes himself out of what we have seen, I think he is one-note as well.
not sure even Tilda can tempt me into Marvel territory and she can turn in disappointing performances as well.She never won me over in Micheal Clayton.I I know little about Strange it is difficult to comment on casting but will wait and see.I do lean towards using actors with ethnic background if that is what they are in the comic books.
I much prefer Benny in supporting roles like Osaga County and Tinker Taylor and 12 yrs where he seems to give a more subtle performance.I would have been intrigued to see Benny in Crimson Peak -I assume playing Christians older brother as it would have changed the dynamic but from what I have seen so far Tom has turned a brilliantly nuanced performance and i am really keen to see Tom and Jessica togther
but then why can’t they hire a chinese or other asian actor if marvel is scared of tibet-oriented backlash from china????? they could even hire a woman of asian descent. and then you got the woman factor and the POC factor. that said, i totally love tilda and would also love her against cumber. ugh dilemmas!
Sure, whitewashing for commercial reasons is so much better….
“But it can’t be held against us because we hired Michael B. Jordon to play the Human Torch. That means we get a free pass, right?” – Studio Executive, probably.
Different Studios.
More like we cast Idris Elba as Heimdall.
All those cheekbones in the big screen together. I think I just died of happiness. Please Kevin Feige, make this happen.
Before everyone gets too excited, one word: Constatine. Yes, Tilda is awesome but awesomeness doesn’t make up for bad movie premise. And two: if Marvel is witewashing this due to China and wanting more money, isn’t that the definition of little things? Because, China. Like Hollywood, known for doing the right thing (sarcasm). Probably just doing this as a reaction to how Black Widow treated during marketing of Ultron and the Marvel woman problem backlash. All about the Benjamins.
I didnt like the idea of Ant Man at first but having seen the trailer I’m hopeful. Its very early days for Strange though so you could be right. I’m sincerely hoping BC bulks up a bit for this role but not sure where he’ll get the time. He’s doing Hamlet from Aug – Oct (I think?) and I doubt he’ll have time or be able to change his appearance during that run, so that leaves him with a month which is possible but he appears to be getting thinner.
All of This!! ^^ Cosign hard … I love Our Tilda Overlord more than puppies in Footie PJs but Whitewashing/Marvel/another superhero movie ..ugh
I like what Marvel did with the Dr. Cho character. She wasn’t stereotypical asian at all. In fact, slightly realistic character (women can be scientists and brave and they can be asian). If they casted an asian for The Ancient One, I’d roll my eyes (and I’m asian). I think it’s less to do with whitewashing and more to do with NOT enforcing asian stereotypes. I’m ok with that. Plus Tilda is an alien goddess 🙂
I do hope we see more of the Dr. Cho character. She was really cool
I thought I read, back before Strange was cast, that they were dropping parts of the origin story and moving way from it entirely for Marvel movies going forward. I don’t think the Ancient One is from Tibet anymore, more of a general/vague godlike entity.
They still could have cast an actress of Asian descent though. I do agree with going with a woman because DS’s main players in the comics are mostly men.
I’m actually more excited about this than him being Doctor Strange. As fabulous as she is, i DO wish they would have made more of an attempt to find a POC for this role.
Sigh. I miss the days before Cumberbatch saturation. Now I feel like almost everything he does and says irritates me.
the addition of the Alien Goddess is enough to put my butt in a seat.
@Nutty, I’m not sure how deep into the Tumblr pool you have been going now that our Tom touchstone site is gone, but these have been making the rounds over there. So very, very cute. http://precursorpress.tumblr.com/post/120115699687/from-the-night-manager-set-in-morrocco
p.s. Tilda in Doctor Strange excites me in ways that Bendy does not. I’ve also heard that Chiwetel Ejiofor has signed on, which also has me vaguely giddy.
I saw those and wondered if they were new-maybe his co -star????
On a theatre front they have just cast Ciaran Hinds as Hamlet Uncle so the cast is building up,.I am intrigued to see how Benny will play mad
also picked up release date for High Rise from SHOW CASE MAGAZINE linked to Showcase Cinema to Lecister -June 5th in UK
@icerose – photos taken Thursday in Casablanca, the last day filming in Morocco. The lovely lady in the photo is listed on IMDB as the assistant to the producer/director, I assume while they were shooting in Morocco.
June 5 is so very soon! That would very awesome if accurate but maybe not? Especially with no trailer or other promos yet. I expected more distribution announcements to come out of Cannes, I know Hanway was marketing it there even if it didn’t make the official festival, but not much so far.
The key Asian character would be Wong. In the early comics, he was written as a stereotype but the later comics worked hard to change that. He is Tibetan, and yes it would suck if this were downplayed for the sake of China’s market.
I was kind of hoping for Tilda as Clea, an otherworldly character, originally Strange’s love interest, but I have heard the writers are moving away from that in favor of her more complex story. I wonder who will take this role?
Some people want Naomie Harris
Did anyone else see that Ben is signed on to play Thomas Edison in a biographical movie to shoot sometime next year? Way to break out of the typecasting Bendy!
What happened to The Yellow Birds and Flying Horse?
Looks like the Edison thing is just old rumor rehashing. Probably not true atm.
While Edison was a genius and a dick in private, publicly, he was charismatic and social. Not the cold, awkward type at all.
Lindy79, I think FH failed to find funding (?) but YB looks like a go and it a matter of scheduling now.
Alan Turing wasn’t an idiot savant but that didn’t stop him.. So.. Yeah.
Team Tesla
Me too!
Works for me – I really like Swinton, a true original, and she was terrific in the loved it-or-hated it “Only Lovers Left Alive” (personally, I loved it although I know many who totes hated it and I get why). My estimation of Swinton’s ability to play a wide range of characters went up exponentially after I saw her in “The Deep End”.
I love Tilda but would still prefer Marvel and Hollywood do better re diversity. Yes, China and Tibet has issues but there are plenty of amazing Chinese actors/actress to play this part. Keep Tilda in the movie but please don’t turn all the Asian characters into white characters for no good reasons.
Oh my word! The thin white duchess teaching bendy martial arts? Be still my ovaries.
There’s also a second rumor going around that she may not be the Ancient One but Death, who appears in DS and is part of Thanos’ Avengers storyline.
That would make more sense, be wicked cool, and allow Tilda and her character to be part of the bigger MCU (appearing in other franchises like GOTG and the Avengers) instead of just being limited to the Strange series.
That would be amazing.
I have had a girl crush on Swinton FOREVER. I also love k.d. laing in the same way. I’m happily married to a man, but still . . .
I love KD Laing’s singing -it is so heart felt
The Ancient One doesn’t need to be a woman or a man, Tilda could totally pull off androgynous or hermaphrodite, full circle back to the days of ‘Orlando’ she could have the audience guessing ‘he or she or both’ all the way through the franchise.