When it rains, it pours, and today we’ve gotten confirmation on four seperate casting rumors regarding upcoming Marvel properties.
Doctor Strange
The biggest one is arguably Doctor Strange, with Benedict Cumberbatch now officially set to play the lead. We had gotten word about this one over a month ago, but at the time Marvel declined to comment on it (they even left it out of their big press conference).
It seems that any loose paperwork has finally been cleared though, and Cumberbatch is officially in to play the Sorcerer Supreme in the upcoming film.
Doctor Strange will hit theaters on November 4, 2016.
Jessica Jones and Luke Cage
In other Marvel Cinematic Universe news, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage of the upcoming Netflix series have also been cast.
Deadline reports that Krysten Ritter (Jane from Breaking Bad) has gotten the part of Jessica Jones. In the comics, Jessica Jones is a former superheroine who retired and opened a private detective agency. Melissa Rosenberg will be the showrunner on that series.
Meanwhile, Mike Colter (he recently starred in Halo: Nightfall) will play Luke Cage. Both Jones and Cage will be introduced as part of Netflix and Marvel’s big partnership.
If you need a refresher, the two companies paired up to develop five series that will debut exclusively on Netflix: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Defenders. That last one will combine the characters from the first four in an Avengers like mini-series event.
Daredevil will be the first to hit Netflix, and it’s already in production with Charlie Cox in the lead role. Jessica Jones will be next, and will introduce the character of Luke Cage before he gets his own series shortly thereafter.
Deadpool
In a final bit of casting news, this time outside of the Marvel movie-verse, we now have confirmation that Ryan Reynolds will indeed play Deadpool in the recently greenlit movie. He’s technically reprising the role, after the character’s “debut” in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but my guess is that the standalone movie will try its best to ignore all of that.
Reynolds has been the driving force behind the project for half a decade now, which only recently managed to get Fox’s attention after a leaked concept video was a huge hit online. The movie is now being developed as an official part of the X-Men movie universe, so it’ll be interesting to see how it fits in with the rest of them.
While the studio hasn’t officially commented on the news, Ryan Reynolds certainly has…
Deadpool is scheduled to hit theaters on February 12, 2016, and will be directed by Tim Miller.
