Stephen Strange: The MCU's Doctor Strange and the Actor Who Plays Him

Stephen Strange is a gifted but self-absorbed New York neurosurgeon who becomes a sorcerer after a car accident costs him the fine use of his hands. Benedict Cumberbatch plays him in every appearance, and the character first arrives in Doctor Strange (2016), directed by Scott Derrickson. Stephen Strange is his real name, so there is no hidden identity to unmask. The credits use three forms: "Dr. Stephen Strange" in the 2016 film, "Doctor Stephen Strange" in the 2022 sequel and "Doctor Strange" in the rest.

When modern medicine fails him, Strange hears of a former paralysis patient who healed himself and follows that trail to Nepal. He finds Kamar-Taj, where the Ancient One shows him the astral plane and other dimensions. He studies beside Mordo while Wong guards the library, and the Eye of Agamotto becomes his signature relic. By the end of the film he has settled into the New York Sanctum.

If you want the wider cast around him, the marvel characters index is the best next stop.

Strange's closest relationships are with Wong, Christine Palmer and his old teacher the Ancient One, and his sharpest conflict is with Baron Mordo. Wong (Benedict Wong) guards the library at Kamar-Taj and appears again when Strange protects America Chavez. In the 2022 film Wanda captures Wong after attacking Kamar-Taj, and Strange and Wong are together with America at the end.

The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) trains him, then dies after Kaecilius fatally wounds her. Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is her other student, and he turns against the order when he learns she borrowed power from the Dark Dimension. He later quits magic because Strange breaks the rules. The post-credits scene shows Mordo taking a magical power from Pangborn and saying the world has too many sorcerers. In the 2022 film, a different universe's Mordo takes Strange and America in.

Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) is Strange's former colleague and old love. She treats him after the attack on the New York Sanctum, and in the sequel he has recently attended her wedding. A version of her from another universe escapes with him later.

Tony Stark and Peter Parker fight beside him in space, and Thor visits him after Loki reaches Earth. Wanda Maximoff, whom we cover on the wanda maximoff page, is the force he opposes in the 2022 film. Clea (Charlize Theron) appears at the end of it.

In my opinion, Strange's best moment is still the Dormammu loop in Doctor Strange (2016), and it works because the film turns a magic duel into a patience contest. The Hong Kong set piece shows the Dark Dimension merging with the city and Wong being killed. Strange then reverses time, and instead of fighting he returns to Dormammu again and again, and dies every time. It is a hero winning by being annoying, which suits a character who began as an arrogant surgeon.

Second, I would pick the Time Stone decision in Avengers: Infinity War (2018). Strange hands the Stone over to save Tony Stark, and it matters because this is a man who spent his first film secretly studying forbidden texts. It is a quiet, costly choice in the middle of a loud film, and it is a clean piece of page to screen thinking: a comics sorcerer made to feel like a character with consequences.

Third, and perhaps the boldest, is the corrupted Strange sequence in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), directed by Sam Raimi. Strange defeats a darker version of himself and takes over that version's dead body to get home. I think it is the best use of the multiverse idea in the sorcerer's films, because the threat is a mirror, not a monster. It also pays off the third eye he ends the film with.