Spider-Man: No Way Home Star Benedict Cumberbatch on Doctor Strange Filling Tony Stark’s Mentor Role

Spider-Man: No Way Home is less than two months away from debuting in theaters, and there’s undeniably a lot of excitement about how it will bring its wide array of Marvel Comics elements together. Among them is the dynamic between Peter Parker / Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and Stephen Strange / Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), which has already been teased to some extent in the saga’s first trailer. Strange will mark the latest mentor of sorts that Peter has had in his MCU tenure — something that Cumberbatch recently acknowledged in an interview with Empire.

“There’s a shade of the [Tony] Stark relationship… It’s not as intimate to begin with,” Cumberbatch explained. “Because of how experienced a superhero he is, it’s a strange dynamic and it kind of shifts into something far more parental and corrective. And then it shifts again.”

This echoes comments Cumberbatch previously made about the film, arguing that the pair’s bond as “neighborhood superheroes” will be key.

“There’s a close relationship,” Cumberbatch explained to The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year. “They’re neighborhood superheroes, and they’ve had an experience or two. They’ve got history. It might be the case that Peter asks me to help him do something? I think I’m allowed to say that much. I help him fill in his tax returns. That’s what I do.”

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, for the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a Super Hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man. The film will also star Zendaya as MJ, Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds, Marisa Tomei as Aunt May, J.B. Smoove as Julius Dell, Tony Revolori as Flash Thompson, Angourie Rice as Betty Brant, and Hannibal Buress as Coach Wilson. Reports have also indicated that Jamie Foxx will reprise his role as Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man movies, and Alfred Molina will reprise his role as Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2.

Are you excited for Spider-Man: No Way Home? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to be released on December 17th.