Armed with the world-famous Eye of Agamotto (read: the Time Stone), it’s no secret that Doctor Strange will prove instrumental during the course of Avengers: Infinity War.
Much like Vision before him, the mere fact that Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sorcerer Supreme is walking around with an Infinity Stone hiding in plain sight has led many to wonder if Strange has found his way onto Joe and Anthony Russo’s fabled kill list. The jury’s still out on that one, mind you, as we fully expect Marvel and director Scott Derrickson to begin work on a Doctor Strange sequel once Infinity War and the so-far untitled Avengers 4 have their time in the sun.
If one thing’s for certain though, it’s that the Stephen Strange we meet in Infinity War will be much different than the one first introduced to us back in 2016. Speaking at a recent fan event, Cumberbatch teased the evolution that his character’s gone through since the end of Doctor Strange, which will seemingly continue into Avengers 3, too.
“The evolution of him in this movie is interesting. We met a very somber person by the end of Doctor Strange. He’s clued into the idea that being really heroic is sacrificing your own needs and selfishness for something a little more selfless and doing good for others. And that’s a lonely path to take. And when you see him at the end, when he looks at the watch and you see him look out the window in a profile of the hero to come, that’s the person we meet a little bit in Thor: Ragnarok and very much so in [Infinity War]. He’s certainly not as egotistical and narcissistic as he was in [Doctor Strange].”
Of course, it’s not only an evolved Strange that we have to look forward to when it comes to Cumberbatch’s fan favorite. We’ve also heard a fair bit about his unlikely partnership with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. The Russo brothers have promised that the two characters have “great chemistry.” We got a hint of this ourselves in one of the recent trailers, too, which featured a hilarious moment as Peter Parker mistakes Strange’s moniker for a made-up superhero name.
In general, Stephen Strange is expected to be amongst the more prominent characters involved in the film. After all, like we said above, he has one of the Infinity Stones – the Time Stone, to be exact – in his possession, so he’ll be both one of the most valuable and vulnerable heroes in the fight against Thanos, which is set to go down on April 27th, when Avengers: Infinity War blasts into cinemas.