Oh No! Scheduling issues for Dr Strange…

Photo by Jay Maidment                    Chiwetel Ejiofor and Benedict Cumberbatch. 

The success of Doctor Strange has pretty much fast-tracked the Sorcerer Supreme as a pivotal player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Fans are hoping that he would bring his mystical A-game into the fight against Thanos in Avengers: Infinity Wars.

However, the constraints of actor Benedict Cumberbatch’s film and TV schedule just might reduce that role a bit.

Cumberbatch, who’s also one of the most in-demand A-list actors around, has already been contracted to fight another battle. His Thomas Edison will pit tech ingenuity and financial muscle against Michael Shannon’s George Westinghouse in the campaign to bring electricity to the American home in The Current War.

The Current War’s shooting schedule is too close for comfort to that of Avengers: Infinity War. Marvel’s only options might be to rewrite his role and reduce his screen appearances, or it can get a stand-in for Cumberbatch who will record his voice over the canned film later on.

Not surprisingly, fans are rooting that Cumberbatch can work around his schedule and share a lot of screen time with Iron Man and Captain America. This is the Marvel universe’s most powerful magical lord, after all – and a quick cameo in an intergalactic war that can determine the fate of mankind wouldn’t do justice to him, or the movie.