On Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016, we traveled to London’s Longcross Film Studios to visit the Marvel Studios production of Doctor Strange. While there we had the opportunity to examine concept art for the film, costumes of all the characters, props from key scenes, and tour multiple sets.
The day began with an introduction and conversation with Marvel Studios boss, and franchise mastermind, Kevin Feige followed by interviews with director Scott Derrickson, several cast members and department heads who all helped reveal and confirm many details of the adaptation. We learned about the previous plans for this origin movie, including a sequence which may be saved for the sequel, lots of Easter Eggs, and what exciting stories from the comics are setup for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Without further ado, here are 31 things we learned on the set of Marvel's Doctor Strange.
31. Doctor Strange Follows Comic's Origin Story
Despite some updating of key characters, their main roles, albeit fleshed out, are largely the same. In that respect, Stephen Strange's journey in his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut is very faithful to readers know from the comics or various animated appearances.
Kevin Feige: Yes, he’s always been… his origin has always been, like Tony Stark’s, relatively stable, relatively consistent, and we’re certainly pulling from that – the arrogant New York neurosurgeon, who’s a bit of an ass, who’s extremely arrogant, and who has a horrible accident, mangles his hands – his tools – and who loses his identity and loses himself, and has a nice downward spiral, before finding his way in a last-ditch effort in something he doesn’t really believe in to Nepal, to the people who he will encounter and who will teach him and open his eyes to a whole other reality.
So we’re certainly doing that origin. I think it’s one of the coolest origins in our comics. It’s certainly, from a cinematic point of view, the most sort of interesting singular character journey maybe since Iron Man 1 that we’ve plucked from the books.
30. Doctor Strange Relates Magic to Science (Like Thor)
The idea of magic was introduced and almost written-off in a single line in Thor. What made you want to bring magic back into the Marvel universe in a full proper way like this now?
Kevin Feige: I don’t know if it was written off in that single line in Thor. It was given another way of looking at it. There are a couple of lines in Thor basically saying that science and magic it gets to a point where what’s the difference. And I think we’re continuing that. The Ancient One encounters Strange – he’s a scientist, he’s learned Western Medicine; he believes very much in that. She starts using Eastern lingo in the way she’s describing the world to him. He immediately writes it off – he rolls his eyes, he doesn’t buy it, and she goes okay, and she starts talking about it in Western terms to try and make him more comfortable. She says it’s the same thing. Whether you’re looking at the ancient study of acupuncture pressure points or you’re looking an MRI – she’s trying to say we’re talking about the same things here. And if you’re not comfortable with the word spells, let’s use the word program. It’s all the same thing. And I think that’s true to a certain extent – I think for the audience and the way science is going. I’m not a scientist. I just read articles that are interesting and that capture my imagination, but I think there’s a reason why there’s so much faith placed in science.
For a long time there was a prologue in this movie that we’re not doing – maybe we’ll do in part two, so maybe I shouldn’t mention it – but it took place in CERN [the European Organization for Nuclear Research]. If you think about CERN, it comes up a lot in science fiction stories because it’s so mind-blowing what’s actually being done there, and we’ve looked at that a lot because of the discussions about parallel dimensions and multiple-dimensions, and all of that has gone into building the foundation for our fictional reality within the Strange universe. And then you go back and look at the comics and look at the, you know, the journey the Ancient One takes Strange on in the comics, and it’s all the same thing. They didn’t know about parallel dimensions back then – they were making it up or tapping into philosophies for it, and now I think it’s more relevant and potentially, theoretically, more realistic than ever. Realistic being a relative term here.
29. Doctor Strange Is A Standalone Movie
As another origin tale, like Ant-Man before it, Doctor Strange has a little more freedom to tell its own story. Especially since, like Guardians of the Galaxy, its opening up a whole other section of the Marvel universe with its own new sets of characters. It's laying groundwork for the future - and of course, Doctor Strange will be seen in Avengers: Infinity War - but this movie works on its own.
Kevin Feige: If you didn’t know this movie was connected to 13 movies before it, nothing in this movie would indicate that was the case. This is very much a standalone introduction to a very complex character and a very complex world, which through this movie and until maybe some upcoming movies is relatively self-contained. There are people inhabiting the same world that are stopping buildings from falling down, robots from doing this, aliens from doing that – these people in this movie are stopping inter-dimensional forces from wiping out all of reality.
28. Marvel Comics Characters Have Been Changed
We'll discuss more of this in depth later, but on its surface, Doctor Strange is very faithful to the origin story of the comics (and to the 2007 animated film) despite some updates to its interpreation of supporting characters.
- Wong is now a master, a protector of library and trainer of others.
- Karl Mordo is now three-dimensional character and ally with sensible motivations as opposed to to a jealous power-hungry villain who's far too easy to read.
- The Ancient One is female and of Celtic descent.
- Kaecilius went from a nothing-character to the primary antagonist of Doctor Strange.
27. There's A Runaways Reference
The Runaways movie isn't happening although it was supposed to in 2012 alongside The Avengers. Instead, it's now being developed as a Hulu series by Marvel TV. In the War Room on set we noted a few exciting names on the concept art and costumes for fans of the comics - namely, Drumm and Tina Minoru- who most recently appeared in the Doctor Strange prelude comic.
Kevin Feige: Of Drumm and Minoru that you mention, one of those names you hear in the movie, and one of those – I don’t think… We never say Minoru in the movie, do we? No. So that picture, if it is in the art of book, is the only place you’d ever see that name.
Drumm, you do hear the name in the movie. That’s how we always build the universe. It’s not… there’s so many characters in the books that if we have need for a person to be in this place at this time and have a line or have no lines, we still want it to be someone, and oftentimes that’s how the names come about. And the names we pull are the ones that are relatively top of mind or have been amongst characters we’ve thought about, like the Runaways for a long time. I would call that an Easter Egg that most people won’t even see.
More: Doctor Strange May Include a Brother Voodoo Appearance
26. The Antagonist is Someone You Probably Don't Know
In Marvel Comics, Kaecilius is a very minor character - a field agent of Baron Mordo - but in the MCU he has a much bigger role as the primary antagonist of Doctor Strange. Where Mordo is now a "good guy" and has his backstory fleshed out, so to will Kaecilius who's the "bad guy." And in the movie he's played by Mads Mikkelsen, someone Marvel wanted to work with on Thor: The Dark World when he almost played its villain Malekith.
Kevin Feige: The Antagonist is Mads Mikkelsen, who plays a character called Kaecilius who was a sorcerer within Kamar-Taj, who along with some other of his followers, who are called zealots, defect from Kamar-Taj because they believe The Ancient One is not being truthful in the way that she is teaching magic, is teaching sorcery. They believe she is withholding secrets that should not be withheld, and think that maybe it’s not a bad thing if other dimensions absorb our reality. In fact, that could lead to benefits such as immortality. They may also lead to destroying the entire world as we know it. But it is definitely a philosophical break that he has from the rest of the sorcerers that is his primary angst over the course of the movie.
More: Kevin Feige Explains Why Marvel Loves Doppelganger Villains
25. He Might be Working For Someone else...
Can you talk about the decision to use Kaecilius and why you guys ended up there and what to expect from him?
Scott Derrickson: Yes. I'm trying, I don't know how much I can give away about this, so what I'll say is that I'll, I'm gonna answer with a tease. Is that fair?
What we wanted was a character that was rooted in the real. This is certainly what I was pitching from the beginning was an antagonist who was rooted in the real world so that there could be an intimate relateability between Strange and his adversary, but who was empowered by something else. By something otherworldly. And connected to something else otherworldly. Which comes straight from the comics - and I'll say this, another character straight from the comics.
And that became interesting to me. I always loved the Sauron-Saruman idea in Lord of the Rings, even though you never see Sauron except I think in the prologue. I think that's the only time you ever see him in that trilogy, but what a presence and what a power. And we do more than that with this other dimensional power. I like that idea. So that Strange wasn’t combating something huge and fantastical all the way through the movie that had no human relateability. Every version of that that we would visit felt strained and felt like too high of a bar, that we wouldn't clear that bar given everything else that we had to establish in the movie. Does that make sense?
And I think it's working really well. And the thing I'll say about Kaecilius that is my favorite thing about him is he is a man of ideas. And that to me what always is compelling about villains, you know. I am much more interested in how they think than in what they even do. My favorite villain being John Doe in Seven who does this extraordinary things and is so scary, but the scariest scene is when he actually - for me - the scariest scene in that movie is the ride into the desert when he articulates why. I got terrified, I felt nauseous watching that movie, because I was like oh my God, he makes sense. Oh my God, how can this be?! You know, and it was that watertight logic of what he says. Same thing with The Joker in The Dark Knight. The watertight logic of his anarchistic philosophy in that hospital bedside table scene with Harvey Dent - Is awesome! So I'm not saying our villain is as great as John Doe or The Joker, as Heath Ledger's Joker [laughs] but he is a man of ideas and to me that's what makes villains compelling.
24. There Are Hints of Dormammu
Given Scott Derrickson's words and what we know from the comics, the obvious assumption is that Kaecilius is working for (or with) Dormammu - the millennia-old villainous sorcerer from another dimension. There's always a darker power at work and some larger threat who will surface in future Doctor Strange movies or perhaps even other crossover events a la Infinity War.
In addition to what Derrickson's hints of there behing someone pulling the strings behind-the-scenes in his comparison to Lord of the Rings, in the war room where costumes and props were shown to us alongside concept art we saw a Dread symbol as Art Department head Barry Gibbs walked us through it all. We pointed it out.
That's a dread symbol, right there.
Barry Gibbs: Dredd, as in Judge Dredd? [laughter]
As in the Dread Dormammu…
Barry Gibbs: Could be? [laughter] But there are elements here that in affect there are codes hidden within it which take meaning during the course of the film.
23. Doctor Strange Introduces the Multiverse
The source of much of the magic and mysticism in Doctor Strange - at least in his origin movie in the MCU - comes from alternate dimensions. Of course, with the idea of multiple realities comes one of the most exciting and limitless plot devices ever, and so I couldn't help bust ask Kevin Feige if this means we can see different versions of the MCU, different versions of characters or even things like the Cancerverse. Fans of the Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning cosmic comics from 2006-2011 will know exactly what I'm talking about.
Kevin Feige: I think when comic book fans hear parallel dimensions or multiple dimensions they think of Earth 616 and Earth 617 and Earth 618. That’s all possible. But what we’re playing with in this world is there are dimensions – that the other dimensions are not just parallel realities, although some of them are, but there are the Dark Dimension where Dormammu inhabits; there are dimensions that are so mind-bending that you can barely perceive them; there are dimensions where a lot of the Ditko images come from; there are dimensions that are just mind trips that the human mind can barely fathom which is why it’s hard to turn them into something to show audiences in November. But we’re playing as much with the notion of the multiverse as much as alien dimensions, for lack of a better term, than parallel realities where there’s Strange that wears Iron Man armor – we’re not there yet.
More: Marvel's Alternate Dimensions and Multiverse Explained
22. There's Probably an Infinity Stone In The Movie
As we enter deeper into Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe there remains only two of the six Infinity Stones left to be uncovered and so far the hints have been very strong that one of them is in Doctor Strange, likely the Time Stone. That comes from previous hints from Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige who previously said Doctor Strange will play with time, although yet another Infinity Stone being on Earth - and being a potential source of magic may seem to make the universe feel a tad smaller.
We can't say for certain, but the following line from Feige during our interview with him on the Doctor Strange set seems to all but guarantee an Infinity Stone - or connection to one - is indeed in the movie, to be revealed later.
There are a few Infinity Stones we haven’t seen yet. Might one of them be important to this movie?
Kevin Feige: If you’re tracking such things, perhaps. But we don’t get into it in this movie because, again, we’ve got...
...Shall we look at an eye of some sort?
Kevin Feige: It’s closed. You can look at it as long as you want. But again, there’s a lot to take in in this movie, there are a lot of new concepts, there are a lot of new characters, there’s a lot of new mythologies that we didn’t to clutter up by telling you about other MacGuffins.
More on the Eye of Agamotto and the stone within it later...
21. The Cloak of Levitation is Asymmetric and A Character of Its Own
In a rather interesting visual sequence in the recent Doctor Strange trailer and TV spots, there's a shot where Stephen Strange, in his master garb and sporting the Eye of Agamotto - suits up with the iconic cloak of leviation and it fits onto him itself. This important magical artifact is actually sentient in the movie and not symmetric in its design. From our chat with costume designer Alexandra Byrne you can get a sense of just how much work went into adapting the cloak.
Alexandra Byrne: Yes, that was a big challenge. It’s amazing in the comic book and, obviously, we have practical limitations. The collar in the comic is enormous and if you had something that big, you’d never see your actors’ faces. It’s about getting the spirit and, for want of another word, the magic. To be entranced by the cloak. The cloak is sentient, so it has its own character. You want something that has an amazing sense of history, antiquity and that is a relic in itself. It’s a mixture of drawing and building not the body. You can draw a lot, but it’s ultimately the drape of a fabric that is going to dictate how the cloak works. We tend to attack it on two fronts. Then, really the feel I wanted is that you learn more about the cloak the more you saw it. Obviously, there’s a color palette within the comics. I think red and gold has an immense amount of baggage that isn’t particularly helpful to this film, so I decided to keep it basically monochrome so that the detail is all there. As you go more into closeup, you gain more from the cloak. The big challenge was the idea of asymmetry, whether that’s just me asking, “What can be different about this cloak?” It had a good feel to it. In order to achieve that, it has a semi-tailored shoulder on one side. That’s a whole new game that I had never tackled. I won’t call it a graveyard, but we certainly have a rail of prototypes, all of which taught us something. It really is about working with the fabric and the processes. Every time you add something else to the cloak, it change the weight, the balance and the behavior.
Marvel Studios boss and producer Kevin Feige, adds more, using the cloak (yes, yet another red cape) as an example of where some of the supernatural elements are exemplified:
Kevin Feige: Well, you should ask Scott [Derrickson], I think it is - it does tap into a supernatural type of genre that is not horror. People say ‘Scott’s movies are kind of scary, is this a horror movie?’ Of course, it’s not a horror movie. But what Scott has done so well in the best of his films is have one foot completely in the real world and one foot in this whatever supernatural sub-genre he was playing with. I do think we’ve looked at this film not with any direct genre comparison but as a play on the supernatural genre. Certainly more so than we’ve done in the past, which is what makes his journey from person that doesn’t wear a cape to person who does wear a cape – cloak, much more unique than we’ve seen in the past.
Also, you should also talk to Alex. Alex has designed, I think, more red capes than anyone else. I swear, and you can look at it, you can look at the inside of that too. It’s always my fear that you put a red cape on somebody and – I thought people would think Thor was superman for the longest time. She designed the original Thor cape. The red cape that goes over the shoulder of Thor, the folds on the back. This cloak – the asymmetry to it, the design, the specificity of it – is astounding. When you are designing something that is quite extreme in the comics and you see that collar is not shy around his neck there, you want to do justice to it but you also want it – there’s a reason these characters feel unique in the comics as well – you want to bring that to life. She’s done that in an amazing way. The cloak, unlike Thor’s cape or Superman’s cape or Vision’s cape, as you may recall from the comics, I wouldn’t say has sentience, but is not just a piece of fabric. It helps Strange out in ways that other character’s clothing has not.
The cloak comes to live on screen thanks to a mixture of practical and digital effects but there's a lot that went into the actual fabric and design:
Alexandra Byrne: Well, some of them never quite made it to being fully realized. You go, “No, that doesn’t work” or “Yes, that does work”. Probably half a dozen, but more kind of tabletops and ideas. Practice versions. The fabric, the wool that it came from, comes from Japan. I go to a textile fair in Paris called Premiere Vision where they launch all the new fabrics. Nothing is made in sample length. If you choose something, you have to commission it. It’s quite hard making a decision about something as big as the cloak from a hunk of thread that you see is going to be 90 meters woven. You really need to see the two colors together and all that kind of thing. That was quite a gamble. The deadlines of waiting for the fabric to arrive gets quite scary.
20. The Illuminati Are Coming to the MCU
In our interview with Benedict Cumberbatch on the set of Doctor Strange, the actor flat out namedropped the Illuminati as something he's excited about in the future. This doesn't get namedropped unless Benedict read a lot about that and/or it came up in casual talks about the long-term plans for the character before he signed a multi-picture deal. Here's a snippet from the Cumberbatch full interview.
Is there additional weight to the character and to the role, knowing that this is opening a whole new corner of this Marvel Universe that’s already existed?
Benedict Cumberbatch: Yeah, a little, but I think playing any iconic role when you’re stepping into big shoes, into the shadow of people who have come before you and you can’t process that in a move to move basis… I’m excited to see where the Illuminati and whatever else might happen, how that works, and where it ends up. So, yeah, I’m aware of his place within the comic pantheon of it all, the Marvelverse, but I don’t email Kevin saying, “When are we doing next film?” I’m excited to see. I’m excited to see. And as you know, from all these previous incarnations, they play out in unexpected ways from the comic format and journey, so they manage to both fulfill that magical space of doing things that seem to please diehard fans and bring something new as well. So, I guess that’ll be the centerpiece for this guy’s journey.
More: Doctor Strange & The Marvel Illuminati Explained
19. Doctor Strange is a Supernatural Martial Arts Film
Despite director Scott Derrickson's background and style - and the Fede Alvarez rumor of turning this project down (revealing what type of directors Kevin Feige and Marvel were looking for) - Doctor Strange is no horror movie. When chatting with Feige at the beginning of our set visit, he said only that Doctor Strange is vaguely a supernatural movie and to ask Derrickson for more. We knew martial arts seemed to be a big part of it, especially from discussing the different weapons and how they're augmented with magic with Barry Gibbs, so we asked the director himself:
Scott Derrickson: Yeah. There's definitely a martial arts influence on the movie. Because that is the action that I like for starters. It is also the martial arts, martial arts is the kind of action that does tie in well to the supernatural. There's a whole, that is a whole subgenre within martial arts cinema. The supernatural martial arts movie. Particularly within Asian cinema. And I felt like when it came to fighting in the movie that just made sense, you know, to certainly to go in that direction and stay away from, you know, gunfire and things like that. And to avoid having fighting be the casting of bolts of light. I just, you know, that was another thing where I feel like I really feel like magic has been, we've been drawing on the Emperor in Star Wars for over 30 years, you know, and so we gotta start doing this some other way. You know, the magic power, the utilization of magic power. But yeah, it's there's some good fighting in it. But that fighting is again, always within a context of something I think more fantastical and more surreal and more mind trippy than just the supernatural action of combat. That's I think that's it's always supernatural action, combat, fighting within a larger surreal canvas. That was the thing I always wanted to preserve so that we're never just watching fighting. Yeah.
18. Doctor Strange is More Like Captain America 2 Than Guardians
As a genre, the easiest way to classify Doctor Strange is as a supernatural martial arts movie and while there's clearly fun and humor to be had with a star like Benedict Cumberbatch - as evidenced by the Doctor Strange trailers so far - there's also a sense of darkness. In fact, director Scott Derrickson compares Doctor Strange more to Captain America: The Winter Soldier than Guardians of the Galaxy which some may find surprising.
Is there a sense of humor to it as well?
Scott Derrickson: Yeah.
Where does that--?
Scott Derrickson: It's Benedict, how can it not be funny, you know?
By playing it straight it's funny or is he--?
Scott Derrickson: I mean, it's he's yeah, I mean, he's just he is a funny guy. And there's funny lines in the script. You know, there's comedy in it. But it's not Guardians. It's not that tone by any means. It's closer to The Winter Soldier, which has comedy in it and has some really funny lines in it. That I love, I just named my two favorite Marvel movies by the way. And part of my love for Winter Soldier is the high impact, grounded nature of the action in that movie. And the subversive grounded ideas of that movie within what is just one of the great kickass action movies. Like that's what I love about Winter Soldier in a nutshell. So we have a lot of humor, you know, spread throughout, but it is a very grounded, realistic movie about a guy who suffers a lot. And transforms, you know. So there's also it's also very dramatic. Yeah.
More: Full interview with Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson
17. There Are LOTS of Magical Objects (And One Original One)
Doctor Strange fans have much to look forward to with the character's origin movie bringing in plenty of magic and magic artifacts into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Here's a snippet from our interview with director Scott Derrickson about the audience acceptance of magic.
We heard a little bit about some of the weapons and artifacts and how deeply connected they are because they work in certain dimensions and don't and that's about all we heard. So what can you tell us about that and how much of those are being pulled right out of the comics? 'Cause obviously the Eye of Agamotto is there, but…
Scott Derrickson: Yeah. You have to - there was a lot of discussion about how much to use, because you can obviously get into an overload of those things. But I think the Harry Potter movies are proof that audiences love that stuff. They love the idea of magical objects and they like learning the rules of those objects and what they do. I think everything that we do, I think all the names of everything and I think all the things that we use in the movie are drawn from the comics. I can't think of one at least offhand that's not drawn from the comics. Yeah.
What about the Sling Rings?
Scott Derrickson: That okay, there's that yeah. Well done. But the gateways, the forming of the gateways that are used for that, that's straight out of the comics. Yeah. I just needed an object for them to carry it on. Yeah, okay. Well done.
More on the Sling Rings soon...
See also: A Guide To Doctor Strange's Magical Artifacts
16. The Idea of Immortality is a Big Part of Doctor Strange
The Ancient One, as depicted in Doctor Strange is a Celtic woman who's hundreds of years old. For Oscar Winner Tilda Swinton, this isn't the first time playing a timeless sort of character with great power.
Tilda Swinton: I’m just really old [Laughs]. Just really, really old. There is I suppose a sort of theme tune which I’m really interested in. I’m really interested in the idea of long, long life and transformation and immortality. So yeah, I’m very much drawn to these stories. This is a huge, great story about the possibility of living beyond everything, living beyond mortality, living beyond all the immortal confines, living beyond the planet as we know it. It’s mind-blowingly no limits, and I think this is going to be something else. I mean, even in terms of the Marvel universe, this is going on a side street into a major piazza that Marvel hasn’t even been to before, because it’s all about creation and not so much about destruction and forestalling destruction, it’s about your mind. So it’s a big, big trip. And that just is up my alley, I’m really into that stuff. Yeah, there is a link, I think.
15. There Are 3 Sanctum Santorums
In Marvel Comics, Doctor Strange resides at 177A Bleecker Street in New York's Greenwich Village - a magically protected place known as the Sanctum Sanctorum. It's connected to mystical energies that we can think of as veins throughout the planet. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are three such locations, including the iconic New York on depicted in concept art above.
Below is a quote from Barry Gibbs from the set of Doctor Strange where he explains the design process behind the Eye of Agamatto and how it ended up featuring the symbol from the New York Sanctum (see: the window design). There are other symbols for the London and Hong Kong Sanctum Sanctorums.
The Eye of Agamotto that was clearly the most iconic prop for this film. It went through a design process where I started the production many months ago and I was handed a drawing. I was told, "This is the finished design for the Eye of Agamotto" and I said, "OK, fine. I don't have a crew starting for a few weeks, let's just see how it plays out." Then Alex [Byrne] started putting the costume together for Strange and she got ahead of the game because she actually made the cord which attached around the neck before I had an Eye. And the Eye went through a transitions state, because it went from something quite a simple operation to a design that needed greater thought put into it. The reason being, the film dictates, or as the script developed it dictated that it needed more requirements. So we ended up with a completely redesigned Eye. It looks nothing like the Eye that we had when I first started. Clearly the Eye that you see now is the New York Sanctum Eye, so that reflects the window that's in New York and is the trademark for Strange.
So we produced a master mold. Some of you have asked, "Is this a 3D print?” This is not a 3D print. This is hand-sculpted and the reason we did that, the 3D sculpt made the Eye to fat, so we slimmed it down. So we created it. We sculpted it. We engraved it. We did everything ourselves. The masters are produced in brass, bronze, it was cast. The rest of them were stunt versions and live-made versions. So they're in resin. There were an additional three designs on that: we got the Hong Kong Sanctum, the London Sanctum and there's also an opening Eye, which we have to work with visual effects and the camera operator, the director of photography tried to determine what we need to put into it and what's required on-set. Again, the Eye is big, the permutations of the Eye, we really had to worry about whether it's two millimeters now smaller? It became hand in hand with the costume. Again, it has to work with the cloak. So everything we try and do is in loop-sync with Alex and to make it work with keeping her design.
14. The Ebony Blade Was Almost in The Movie
While browsing some of the props of Doctor Strange with art department head Barry Gibbs, I noticed that one of the magic books had a drawing of a recognizable weapon in it. It was the Ebony Blade so we asked Gibbs if it shows up in the movie.
"It was. That was gonna go into a book called The Lexicon of Relics but the Ebony Blade was taken out of the script... I don't quite know why... but again as things evolved, it wasn't put into the script. So things like this just moved on."
From our Guide To Doctor Strange’s Magical Artifacts:
Culled from the pages of Marvel’s medieval realms, in specific, the adventures of Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, the Ebony Blade made its first appearance in Black Knight #1. Originally, Merlin carved the shadowy foil from a meteor (how’s that for sci-fi Dark Ages), enchanting it for Sir Percy of Scandia, the first Black Knight. Sir Percy wasn’t exactly a happy-go-lucky crusader, and the violence attributed to his sword cursed it to thirst for souls. After it had caused him no end of trouble, the Black Knight buried the doomed weapon deep in the meteor from whence it came.
Although Marvel has no plans for a Black Knight film, the Ebony Blade has connections to the current MCU and Doctor Strange (of course). After the sword turned Whitman to stone during The Defenders escapades, Valkyrie (played by Tessa Thompson) held onto it, eventually returning it to Whitman and receiving Dragonfang for her troubles (more on that later). The troublesome blade also nearly caused The Vision to destroy the weapon due to its evil-villain-making tendencies.
Capable of cutting through nearly any substance (even opening up Iron Man like a tin can, once), aside from most enchanted weapons and adamantium, the Ebony Blade can also slice and dice ethereal barriers, deflect energy blasts, and absorb those same energies. At one point, our man Strange removed the curse at the Black Knight’s behest. However, the curse has since returned, thanks to Namor murdering his wife.
Of course, the Ebony Blade does get swiped or duped every now and then – even making its way to Wakanda. When the enchanted rapier goes for a walk, the good doctor might need a little travel wear to recover it.
13. The Book of Cagliostro Is In It
Another prop Barry Gibbs called out during a walkthrough of various set props from Doctor Strange was a particularly important book that hardcore Marvel readers may recognize.
"Yeah, so over here we have the Book of Cagliostro which is one of the key props in the movie. So this was produced, again, by our team and we wanted something that looked ancient, looked as if it was incredibly valuable and revered by The Ancient Ones. So this was in a really cool set that we did, which unfortunately... we do have the model. This is the model of the Library. So this is where the private collection of books was housed and this book was on one of these racks, which moved in and out, so in affect had this hexagonal rack that tracked out and was selected by the Masters. Within it, everything on it is bespoke, both the leatherwork, the brass work, all the tooling and then the inside, this was produced by Alan Paine, so Alan produced the graphics, which again, these become the hero pages and they hold it...I forgot the word now... there are words we've got hidden that've got meanings throughout the film. I'm not sure what I can and can't say...."
From our Guide To Doctor Strange’s Magical Artifacts:
The libraries of Doctor Strange may or may not contain (depending upon who you ask) dozens of tomes featuring mystical mumbo jumbo spanning the multiverse. The Book of Cagliostro collects the esoteric writings and experience of the 18th century magician, whose name or nom-de-plume was Alessandro Di Cagliostro, into one convenient catalog. The warlock also transcribed the spells and wisdom of time-traveling 31st century sorcerer Sise-Neg into its pages, as well as witchery from the Darkhold.
The family and followers of the wizard protected the magical artifact, passing it down through their generations. Eventually, the book wound up in the hands of Cagliostro's great-great-granddaughter Lilia Calderu. The Gypsy witch wound up being seduced by an old fiend of the Doc's, Karl Mordo. The Baron hoped to gain the powers contained within the book to get one over on the Ancient One. Upon his defeat by Doctor Strange (as per usual), the Sorcerer Supreme spirited the spell guide back to its lair, where it presumably dwells to this day.
This particular curio, at least according to the prelude comics, has a strong connection to Strange's nemesis Kaecilius in the forthcoming cinematic outing. Fans could catch a glimpse of the Book of Cagliostro in the film. Of course, they'll probably see a whole lot more of the next couple of artifacts – including Strange's very own crystal ball of sorts.
12. We See Stephen Strange Go Through All the Ranks of Kamar-Taj
When chatting with star Benedict Cumberbatch about his various costumes, much of which we saw in concept art or live up close, he was wearing the garb of the first rank. What we saw being shot that day is in the early days of Strange's training, but fans will get to see him train through all of the ranks before becoming the next Sorcerer Supreme.
Benedict Cumberbatch: Yeah, aren’t they amazing? This is novice, this is at the very beginning. You’ve got the green slacks and your little loose top. I go through all the ranks. I think it’s fair to say that, yeah, I’m playing Doctor Strange, I get there. That’s me just me hearing the inner voice of Marvel saying, “you cannot say that yet!” But I do. It’s one of the things that attracted me to the role is the fact that it’s a really widely origin story, I mean this is part of it, but of course there’s the whole chapter before where he’s the neurosurgeon who has the accident. It’s fantastic. It gives me an excuse as an actor to be learning with my character, which is something you can do authentically--I’m not a martial arts expert, I’m certainly no sorcerer, so all these things, the movement of the body, the physicality, the changes he goes through mentally and physically, obviously we’re not shooting in sequence, but it’s a great part.
It’s a great part for the character that made me want to play him in the first place. Yeah, this is him. First day of school kind of outfit. It seems to get not cooler, as in it looks cool, it gets warmer; it seems to get heavier and heavier, and the Cloak of Levitation, which is a dear friend, but sometimes at certain takes it becomes the Cloak of Limitations, because I can trip on it or I’ll be like, “Oh God, was my entire body moving like this?” But, you know, what superhero or what actor playing a superhero doesn’t complain about the costume? It’s a blast. It’s a real blast. Alex [Alexandra Byrne], our costume designer, she’s just, she’s such a fucking genius, I mean, she’s up there.