Benedict Cumberbatch has been lauded for the performances he's given as Doctor Strange since first playing the role in 2016. However, Cumberbatch has revealed that he was first offered the part of a Marvel villain almost a decade ago but ultimately turned it down.
It's fair to say that Cumberbatch has been among the better castings in the Marvel Cinematic Universe seeing how his character has had to adapt to multiple settings in the universe. This is especially the case in the latest installment starring his character titled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Cumberbatch revealed in a recent interview with BBC Radio 1 that back in the early 2010s, he was offered the part of Malekith in Thor: The Dark World. At the time, Cumberbatch was gaining recognition as an actor for his role in Sherlock, but he believed at the time that he would have been better served to play a juicier role in the MCU if the opportunity showed itself. Cumberbatch later added that he wasn't too fond of the Doctor Strange character from the comics. "I was bold enough to say, 'I'd rather hold out for something a bit more juicy," Cumberbatch said of the offer to play Malekith. "I sort of read the [Doctor Strange] comics and went, 'Yikes', because he's quite old school, a bit of a misogynist, very bound in the '70s... I thought, 'It's a bit cornball. I'm not sure (if) this is a great MCU [role]. I don't get it.' They went, 'No, it would be today. It would be very much a man of today. Yes, with some of those qualities, but like a man of today would have those qualities where he thinks he's the business,' because he has to have that arrogance."
The one criticism of Cumberbatch's portrayal of Doctor Strange was how similar the character was to Tony Stark. Not only was he exceptional in his line of work, but he was also very arrogant to go with that, making him hard to get along with. That may have been Marvel's point all along seeing how the two were initially combative with each other when they met face-to-face in Avengers: Infinity War. However, because Doctor Strange is visiting worlds that Stark never dreamed possible, there's a lot more territory to explore, and Marvel Studios has the right actor for the job to pull it off.
So, for both Cumberbatch's and Marvel Studios' sake, turning down the role of Malekith was probably the right call. Who knows if there truly was an actor out there who could have played Doctor Strange as well as Cumberbatch could? Also, in spite of being portrayed by a talented actor like Christopher Eccleston, Malekith was among the blandest villains in the entire MCU. Marvel Studios is definitely guilty of having several good actors play forgettable characters in the past, but to have that be Cumberbatch would have been a colossal mistake knowing the passion he has put into pulling off Doctor Strange since first playing the character.
For the most part, Marvel Studios has nailed the castings with their actors, not just because of how they resembled their characters but how they portrayed them. Sure, there are some what-ifs, like what went down with Edward Norton and Terrence Howard early on, but even at times like those, Marvel Studios rebounded. Let's just be thankful that they didn't make the mistake they could have with Cumberbatch as Malekith.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now playing in theaters.
Source: BBC Radio 1/YouTube