Doctor Strange seems intent on ramping up its already strong cast, with more award winners among its ensemble than you can shake the Eye of Agamotto at. Now another name – and another Benedict, no less – is the latest name to be added to the roster, with Benedict Wong being confirmed for the role.
He will apparently play the role of Wong, Stephen Strange’s “Chef, housekeeper, martial arts instructor, mystical guardian and insatiable adventurer”, as described by Wong himself. Tasked with a wide variety of tasks, his primary one seems to be guarding the Sorcerer Supreme’s body while he’s off having out-of-body experiences, as well as general maintenance and upkeep around the Sanctum Santorum (Strange’s home/lab/lair, in case you weren’t keeping up). Saying that, he’s also a pretty formidable fighter himself, having assisted/protected Strange a number of times in various comic-book storylines.
For the actor Wong, this represents another nifty genre supporting role, having also shown up in the likes of The Martian, Prometheus and Moon. In addition to this, he also provided a standout backing performance in a recurring role in Netflix historical drama Marco Polo as legendary warlord Kublai Khan, so he’s proved that he definitely has the requisite gravitas that the role requires. It’s unknown at present exactly how big the role will be, but generally in the comics, wherever Strange goes, Wong goes, so we’d expect him to have a decent background presence at the very least.
He joins a cast that already includes Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo, Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, Michael Stuhlbarg as Nicodemus West, and Rachel McAdams, Mads Mikkelsen, Amy Landecker and Scott Adkins in unspecified roles. Scott Derrickson is directing, with C Robert Cargill, Jon Spaihts, Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly on board as screenwriters.
Doctor Strange will be released in cinemas on 28 October 2016. You can find out more about the characters and the comics that inspired them by picking up the latest edition of 100 All-Time Greatest Comics.
