Kevin Feige On How Doctor Strange Will Defy Expectations

It's not totally clear what expectations are or should be for Doctor Strange -- Marvel's next big cinematic outing.

The movie is bringing a character to the screen with almost no brand recognition outside of the comic book industry, but they're bringing him into the shared Marvel Cinematic Universe, where even unknown quantities like Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy have made good. They're introducing magic -- a whole new way of looking at that universe -- but doing so on the heels of a presentation of superheroes-versus-magic in Suicide Squad. It's bringing in new blood to the Marvel Universe creatively in the form of director Scott Derrickson, but it's putting him squarely inside of his comfort zone, doing magic and horror after having done films like Sinister.

And, of course, Doctor Strange is a character whose exploits aren't generally as easily explained or tied up in a sentence or two as, say, the Avengers or the X-Men.

So with a moving target as far as what expectations actually are for the film -- critically, commercially, or creatively -- how can it do what the best movies do, and defy those expectations? Even the head of the studio making the movie isn't sure -- beyond just "make the movie as good as it can be."

"Without spoiling things, it's hard to say. I do think that as I said before, the canvas of action sequences there's a way in which the sequences unfurl would be very unique and will be different certainly than any movie that we've made before," explained Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige during a recent set visit. "For us, that's what makes it interesting, what makes it special and what makes it worth pursuing and worth bringing to life for the first time. We do not want to repeat ourselves or do what's been done before necessarily. When you have the track record [we have] now, you can either do that and keep [saying] 'Well, this seems to work, let's keep doing this.' Some people accuse us of this no matter what, because I don't think they pay attention. Really what we do is say, 'Okay, we have a studio that trusts us and lets us do what we want for the most part with the creative. We have audiences that seem to be embracing it whether they've heard of the characters or not. Let's use that to make as interesting and different and unique a story as possible and not just stay with the same thing.' This movie, certainly, is the embodiment of that."

Doctor Strange, which will be in theaters in November, stars Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Imitation Game), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man), Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) and Tilda Swinton (The Grand Budapest Hotel).

The film is directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister) and written by Derrickson, Jon Spaihts (Prometheus), and C. Robert Cargill (Sinister).

Marvel's Doctor Strange is produced by Kevin Feige with Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Charles Newirth, Stephen Broussard and Stan Lee serving as executive producers.

Doctor Strange arrives November 4, 2016; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – May 5, 2017; Spider-Man: Homecoming– July 7, 2017; Thor: Ragnarok – November 3, 2017; Black Panther – February 16, 2018; Avengers: Infinity War – May 4, 2018; Ant-Man and the Wasp – July 6, 2018; Captain Marvel– March 8, 2019; Avengers 4 – May 3, 2019; and as-yet untitled Marvel movies on July 12, 2019, and on May 1, July 10, and November 6 in 2020.