Will Rachel McAdams Join The Cast Of Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange’ Film?!

In Rachel McAdams’ own words to the L.A. Times, “it’s still super-early days, and I don’t know where that’s gonna go, if it’s gonna go anywhere at all,” but word that she’s considering taking a leading role across from Benedict Cumberbatch—in the title role—of Marvel’s upcoming Doctor Strange is very exciting news. McAdams reliably turns in strong performances in romance (The Notebook), comedy (Mean Girls), action (Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes) and is lately proving her dramatic chops with True Detective. (Check out Geekscape’s coverage of True Detective here.)

Honestly—hopefully, without spoiling anything—I’ll admit that I was most into the Sherlock Holmes films when she was most on screen and part of the storyline. Hearing others in Hollywood tell it, McAdams already seems a sort of ethereal presence in Tinseltown—preferring to stick closer to her Canadian roots rather than getting lost in the glitz and glamour—which could naturally bring just the right energy to Doctor Strange.

If she ends up with the, as of yet unnamed, role in Strange, she’ll be joining Tilda Swinton and Chiwetel Ejiofor as well as Cumberbatch in the Scott Derrickson (writer/director of Sinister and Deliver Us from Evil) directed adaptation. I’m not sure if Derrickson’s resume gives me enough to get a bead on how he’ll handle the Strange film but I did sorta appreciate some of the choices he made directing the 2008 remake, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Overall, that film got a pretty cold reception and only almost made its budget back in stateside box-office receipts—but I doubted any update would ever be able to fill the big shoes of the original in the first place and did my best to remain open to it from there. I’m curious to see what Derrickson will do with Doctor Strange—want to give him a shot—but mostly I’m worried. I really want to see Strange a success—especially with the cast being assembled!—and I’ve got my fingers crossed.

As far as which role McAdams may be considering, at this time we can only speculate. So I will!—I’m speculating it’s Clea. I mean, who else? The Sorceress Supreme of the Dark Dimension—she and Doctor Strange are practically a package deal—it makes sense to me. McAdams has that kiss of otherworldly beauty; all she needs is the white hair. Depending on what sort of origin story is told, if Strange is already sort of established from the beginning, the film could be the story of meeting Clea and facing off together against Dormammu! We could then extrapolate that Swinton may be Umar and Ejiofor may be Dormammu, yeah?

Let’s hope there’s a bit less speculation and a whole lot more details soon!