Who Will Marvel Cast As Doctor Strange?

There's a lot of buzz online that Marvel Studios may announce their choice to play Dr. Stephen Strange, the Master of the Mystic Arts, as early as today.

Latino Review, who two years ago got the jump on Marvel's big Comic Con announcement by revealing that the Guardians of the Galaxy movie would be announced at the convention, ran a cryptic tweet last night suggesting that they knew who had been cast as Doctor Strange, and teasing it as an "interesting" choice.

It's been a long road to this film, and there are a lot of rumors surrounding the casting announcement, so...who could it be?

Benedict Cumberbatch

Fox yesterday announced that the Sherlock star will appear in a panel for The Penguins of Madagascar. This being his first Comic-Con, his rabid fan base was already starting build excitement for the idea...but then somebody out there realized that such an appearance would be perfect cover for Cumberbatch being announced as Doctor Strange.

That's the most popular theory online today by a long shot, with Cumberbatch fans alternately taking it for granted that it's going to happen, or saying things like "I don't want to overthink about Benedict being at SDCC and the rumors about Dr.Strange bc it's killing me!"

He's been one of the most popular -- but polarizing -- candidates ever since his name started to circulate in connection with the job last month. Fans on either side of the divide seem to be fairly passionate about it, with one guy on Twitter saying he would "literally kill myself" if Cumberbatch gets the job.

It'll probably be hard to hear the news, though, because of all the screaming girls.

Jared Leto

The Fight Club star and former MTV standout might not seem like the most obvious choice to play Strange, but that's probably because most casual fans haven't seen his work in things like Dallas Buyers Club or Lord of War. He's a spectacular performer with a lot of range, and would be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with guys like Robert Downey, Jr. and Michael Douglas.

The downside is that he's kind of exactly what Marvel tends not to look for. Coming off Dallas Buyers Club, he's white-hot, and probably demanding as much money and as many concessions as he'll ever have a chance to demand in his career. Marvel tend to prefer to be the ones to elevate an actor's game, either by picking a no-name or somebody whose career has seen better days and helping them reach their potential. It's a method that's proven successful for them time and time again, and that also saves them a bunch of money on those multi-picture deals that they insist everyone sign to be part of the vast, interconnected Marvel Cinematic universe.

Like Cumberbatch, if there's a big barrier to Leto joining the cast it may be his popularity -- not just because of the cost but because it means he'll have to work it around his schedule and vice versa.

But, hey! We know more or less what he would look like in the part, thanks to this odd Photoshop job posted to his Instagram account!

Jon Hamm

While his name seems to have disappeared from the conversation now, ComicBook.com was one of a number of sites that got it on very good authority a few months ago that Jon Hamm was not only Marvel's choice to play Strange, but had actually inked a deal to do so.

In one case, we were actually told that he filmed a post-credits sequence for Iron Man 3 that never saw the light of day, but reliable sources at Marvel assured us that's nonsense.

There was a lot of fan-love for Hamm when the rumors started to really revolve around him, but it's mostly evaporated -- either because people don't believe it anymore, they had time to think about the rumors or just because some of the others have been more enticing. It will be interesting to see what the response would be if he were announced.

Tom Hardy

The The Dark Knight Rises villain seems right up Marvel's alley: he's got action and drama chops, a great reputation but doesn't seem to have a ton of high-paying gigs, opting instead to go with quality over dollar amounts most of the time. He's also got Mad Max: Fury Road coming up, which could help to raise his stock after the announcement has already been made the the contract signed.

That said, the rumors of him getting the gig never seemed to get much traction. Is that because people are being good at keeping a secret, or because there was nothing to say?

Zac Efron

Oh, come on. You know he's got it locked up.

We're kidding! Come back!

Somebody else

Of course, as happened with Chris Pratt, it may be that we'll be surprised by who Marvel picks.

How about Meat Loaf as Dr. Strange? That'd be neat. See, this is what happens when I have a faulty nap.

— Scott Weinberg (@scottEweinberg) July 11, 2014