Doctor Strange Trailer: Top Five Moments

An Origin Straight From the Comics

It’s nice to see that the Doctor Strange movie isn’t straying too far from its comic book origins. The trailer’s opening scene shows Strange sitting stunned in his twisted heap of his car.  In the comics, Strange was in a similar accident, that left his hands mangled and too damaged to perform another surgery. Not satisfied with his prognosis, Strange abandons traditional medicine in search of a cure, which leads him right to the doorstep of the Ancient One.  It looks like the Doctor Strange movie will feature a similar origin, with Strange suffering severe hand injuries and experiencing a subsequent crisis of conscience.  

Plus, we also got our first glimpse of Rachel McAdams’ character as Strange is rushed into surgery. She’ll play a fellow surgeon who acts as one of Strange’s few links to his past life.

A Bald…Tilda Swinton

Tilda Swinton has a history of playing some pretty….strange characters, so it shouldn’t shock anyone to see that she shaved her head to play the role of the Ancient One, Strange’s mentor and teacher.  In the comics, the Ancient One was the Sorcerer Supreme before Strange.  His frail body hid his terrifying inner power, with knowledge and raw magical force equal to some of the strongest magical beings in the Marvel Universe. Swinton was a bold choice to play the Ancient One, and it’ll be interesting to see what she brings to the role. 

Astral Projection!

To show Strange the extent of her powers, the Ancient One literally separates Strange’s soul from his body, leaving Strange’s astral projection looking on in amazement.  Astral projection was one of Strange’s earliest abilities.  While separating his soul from his body left him vulnerable to attack, Strange’s astral projection was invaluable for spying on enemies and scouting for danger.  While Strange used his astral form all the time in his Silver Age adventures, it’s become an unfortunately rare appearance in modern books, so it’s great to see his ghostly self pop up in the movie. 

Inception?!

Director Scott Derrickson and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige promised fans that Doctor Strange would be a mind-bending experience. The shot of Strange falling from what appears to be one New York into another seems to back their claims. Marvel Studios has mentioned that Doctor Strange would introduce the concept of alternate dimensions into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although how that ties into magic or the movie’s plot remains to be seen.  Fans will probably be happy to embrace whatever explanation the movie gives as long as they get plenty of insane Inception-esque shots like this one.

Is That…an Infinity Stone?

While the trailer didn’t reveal much about the mystery villain Mads Mikkelsen will be playing, it did give an intriguing glimpse about what he might be after.  As his followers surround him and the world seems to spin out of control, Mikkelsen looks to the sky, his eyes covered in some sort of shadows.  What was interesting about that scene was the red spot at the center of Mikkelsen’s forehead. Although it doesn’t look like Mikkelsen’s character has anything embedded in his forehead, it’s still a bit suspicious. Could Mikkelsen have an Infinity Stone in his possession? Is that what makes him so dangerous? Given the mystical nature of Doctor Strange, it would make sense that Marvel would introduce another Infinity Stone in the movie.