Ever since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was put on ice, it’s been looking like Marvel Studios would bump up Doctor Strange 2 to fill its place. Director Scott Derrickson has been teasing a sequel to his 2016 origins movie on Twitter for a while now and rumors point to it beginning production in early 2019. The latest word on the subject, however, suggests that things may get underway sooner than we thought.
While attending Fan Expo Vancouver this weekend, Benedict Wong – who plays, er, Wong in the MCU – had a little bit to say about when we might see him again on screen. He teased that he’s filmed scenes for Avengers 4 and said he expects to begin shooting Doctor Strange 2 before the year’s out. We don’t have a direct quote from him about this, but that’s the word from those who witnessed his Q&A at the convention.
Benedict Wong is coy in his fate after #AvengersInfinityWars but said he did film stuff for the sequel. And he hopes to start filming #doctorStrange 2 at the end of the year. #FXV18 @FANEXPOVAN pic.twitter.com/am4AZE6c8P
— Pop Goes The World📺 (@Popgoestheworld) October 13, 2018
Seeing as Guardians 3 was due to go before the cameras in January, it makes sense that Marvel will get Doctor Strange 2 ready for basically the same time slot. We suppose that the couple of years Scott Derrickson and his writer C. Robert Cargill have had to percolate their ideas for a sequel have helped them speed up the process just a little. It might also be the only time that filming can accommodate the eternally-busy schedule of star Benedict Cumberbatch.
As for what we can expect from a follow-up, well, Derrickson’s previously suggested that it’ll feature Nightmare as the next big bad that the Master of the Mystic Arts will have to face. The filmmaker also shared some intriguing comic book panels on social media which saw Doctor Strange encounter the powerful entity known as Eternity. Suffice it to say, there are a lot of exciting possibilities for where the hero can go from here and we can’t wait to see what’s next.