12 People Who Could Play Doctor Strange But Probably Won’t

.header { font-family: 'Fjalla One'; color:#ffffff; font-size:28px; line-height:30px; text-decoration ; } a.header { font-family: 'Fjalla One'; color:#ababab; font-size:28px; line-height:30px; text-decoration ; } a.header { font-family: 'Fjalla One'; color:#333333; font-size:28px; line-height:30px; text-decoration ; }Like a juggernaut steered by an angry green man, the Marvelverse is careering into its third phase with a full cargo of bullion and fresh ideas aplenty. Ant-Man kicks off Phase 3, and later on, Doctor Strange will hover into view with Scott Derrickson at the helm. This is a project studio head Kevin Feige calls “totally different from anything else we have”. Current tips for the role include Ethan Hawke and Ewan McGregor, but, then, Joaquin Phoenix was heavily linked with it only to withdraw from contention. If not McGregor or Hawke, who will step into the Sorcerer Supreme’s magic shoes and carry Marvel’s next superhero onto the big screen? We’ve had fun guessing.

.header { font-family: 'Fjalla One'; color:#ffffff; font-size:28px; line-height:30px; text-decoration ; } a.header { font-family: 'Fjalla One'; color:#ababab; font-size:28px; line-height:30px; text-decoration ; } a.header { font-family: 'Fjalla One'; color:#333333; font-size:28px; line-height:30px; text-decoration ; }TOP CHOICES DARK HORSES RANK OUTSIDERS

Patrick Dempsey

Adrien Brody

Oded Fehr

Joseph Fiennes

Now 43, Fiennes has long since graduated from teen pin-up to veteran thesp, so he’s as adept at playing darker spirits as handsome Shakespearean types. There’s a bit of both in Stephen Vincent Strange, a man brought low by a Shakespearean tragedy only to be reshaped into a self-assured magician by the Prospero-like Ancient One in Tibet. He’s the right age and, while he’s hardly been ubiquitous in recent years, he’d offer the kind of fresh-but-familiar face that may appeal to Marvel. If the studio is looking to add a little Anglo-Saxon dash to their bubbling cauldron, he’d be perfect. Plus, he’s already played Merlin so he knows magic. Abraca-frickin’-dabra.

Aidan Gillen

Liam Neeson

John Cusack

Viggo Mortensen

In the absence of Vigo the Carpathian from casting discussions, Viggo the Mortensen would bring a similar broody gravitas to New York's shadowlands as Marvel's hand-impaired sorcerer. There are few actors better at playing men with the weight of the world (or Middle-earth) on their shoulders, a burden all-too-familiar to Doctor Strange. Still, having lost his parents, sister and medical career in the space of a few tragedy-beset years, the Sorceror Supreme will need the odd comic touch to avoid driving audiences into a catatonic funk, and that is something Mortensen is less well known for (a few tiny moments in A History Of Violence aside). That said, we'd love to see him team up with The Hulk (see: Incredible Hulk, Volume 1 #126) in a Aragorn / Angry-Green-Man dream team.

Keanu Reeves

Matthew Macfadyen

Stephen Dorff

The Amazing Mumford

Unlikely to play particularly well with purists, The Amazing Mumford would be a leftfield piece of casting. Mumford's catchphrase – "A la peanut butter sandwiches!" – won't strike fear into even the most anaphylactic of the Undying Ones, but he will make pineapples disappear and play magical havoc with the contents of Cookie Monster's jar. Hilarious, yes, Useful to a despairing humanity? Not really. While we'd love to hear Alan Silvestri's theme to 'The Amazing Mumford Battles The Massed Ranks Of Dormammu's Domain While Making Two Pineapples Disappear', the Muppegician is sadly one to be filed alongside Presto DiGiotagione, Mr Majeika and Dynamo in the category marked "Come On, Really?".