Doctor Strange: Beardless Benedict Cumberbatch Spotted on Multiverse of Madness Set

Even after going to great lengths to hide his embargoed new look earlier this year, Benedict Cumberbatch recently stopped to say hello to a fan near the set of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness this week. In the TikTok video captured by an eager Strange fan, Cumberbatch can be seen near the film’s Somerset location saying hi to the fans. Despite previous looks at the actor sporting a natural goatee, this video shows him clean-shaven.

The location in question is a farm outside Somerset, where a batch of set photos was leaked from earlier in the week.

“By the way, you’re looking at a ceiling because I can’t show you my face because I’m filming Doctor Strange and it’s all embargoed,” Cumberbatch previously said of his look during a Zoom chat in March. “Just to explain why you’re looking at a very attractive ceiling in a trailer.”

Cumberbatch’s goatee is something that also managed to dominate the news cycle around the release of the first Doctor Strange film back in 2016.

“You know he has this wonderful facial hair in the film. Sometimes it was real and sometimes it was glued on…I hope I’m not telling tales out of school here…but if he laughed too hard, and he was always making jokes, it would come off,” Doctor Strange star Rachael McAdams told Marvel.com on the Doctor Strange red carpet in 2016.

Movement designer Jay Funk — the movement designer behind Cumberbatch’s mystical spell castings — later confirmed the story. “Benedict had to keep his facial expressions tight because of his prosthetic beard. So when he had to laugh, he sounded like Santa claus haha,” Funk tweeted in 2017.

Since then, new concept art from the movie has leaked online showing Strange in his iconic goatee. In the same artwork, he’s even seen sporting a new costume since the Eye of Agamatto was destroyed by Thanos during Avengers: Infinity War.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now expected to hit theaters on March 25, 2022.

What other mystical characters would you like to see appear in the Doctor Strange sequel? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!