Yet again, today proved to be a weirdly big day for casting updates on three completely unrelated movie and TV projects
First up, Marvel has officially confirmed Benedict Cumberbatch will portray Stephen Strange in the upcoming movie Doctor Strange. Cumberbatch was first reported to be portraying the Sorcerer Supreme last October after talks with Joaquin Phoenix fell through. A day later, however, Kevin Feige unveiled the entire slate for Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which included confirming Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther. When asked why he didn't mention Cumberbatch's casting as Dr. Strange, Feige addressed the news as only a rumor. Well, it turns out the rumor is true, or, much more likely, Marvel simply wasn't ready to announce the casting.
Who else would you like to see in this movie? as Clea? as Baron Mordo? as Wong? as Dormammu? Feel free to share.
Doctor Strange will be directed by Scott Derrickson, written by Jon Spaihts, and will be released on November 4, 2016 in the US (October 26 internationally).
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The television side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe grows as Krysten Ritter has been cast as Jessica Jones. Ritter was one of four actors in the running for the role, beating out Alexandra Daddario, Jessica De Gouw, and Teresa Palmer, the latter of whom was apparently closest to getting the role after Ritter. Krysten Ritter is also the first person cast for the upcoming Defenders series outside of Dardevil, meaning the Jessica Jones series will be the one to follow that up. Afterwards presumably comes the Luke Cage series, as Marvel Television has narrowed their search for the character down to two actors, with Mike Colter being the apparent front-runner. Although that may just be because of how important Luke Cage is to Jessica Jones' story, and an Iron Fist series will come first before revisiting Luke Cage
Ritter is the best of those names, so this is great. But I'll feel a little cheated if we don't see Krysten Ritter with purple hair.
Marvel's A.K.A. Jessica Jones will be run by Melissa Rosenberg, and will be a 13-episode series coming to Netflix sometime in 2015.
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UPDATE: Marvel themselves have recently confirmed Krysten Ritter's casting and that Marvel's A.K.A. Jessica Jones will follow the Daredevil series. The also provide a brief description of the series:
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Production on the upcoming Deadpool movie moves forwards. Shooting will begin in March, and FOX has nearly closed a deal with Ryan Reynolds to star. Although the deal isn't final, Reynolds current enthusiasm for reprising the role means it is very unlikely things will fall apart. Reynolds of course first portrayed Wade Wilson before he became Deadpool in 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a movie we wouldn't exactly call well-regarded by critics, X-Men fans, general moviegoers...anybody, really, and has since been retconned by the events of X-Men: Days of Future Past. So it's strange to say the least that FOX would want to bring back memories of that movie by having Deadpool portrayed by the same person. Interest in a Deadpool movie was reignited earlier this year when test footage was leaked online featuring Reynolds, and a movie was greenlit not long afterwards. The movie's place in the X-Men film series is currently unknown.
What do you think of Reynolds returning to portray the Merc with the Mouth (presumably with the mouth this time)? He's probably thankful to be playing a comic book character again considering the last four times he did it didn't work out so well.
Deadpool will be directed by Tim Miller, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and will be released on February 12, 2016.
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