Benedict Cumberbatch is a total jerk in 'Doctor Strange' (before he's magic)
SAN DIEGO -- "Teach me."
To stop being such an aggressive, know-it-all dickhead?
That's the challenge that The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) apparently has for Stephen Vincent Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) -- this according to footage exclusively released Saturday night at Marvel Studios' panel for Comic-Con.
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Marvel showed a Hall-H-only extended scene in which Strange -- a brilliant surgeon whose hands are crushed in an accident -- first encounters The Ancient one in Tibet. After mistaking an Asian man for the venerated healer and teacher, he begins a conversation with the real deal ... that gets off on the wrong foot.
That's because Strange is, to put it mildly, kind of an a-hole.
Cumberbatch (using a deep, gravely American accent) is haggard, desperate, on his last dollar and in search of the person who has apparently reversed a man's paralysis. When he finds her, he is deeply skeptical -- even hostile -- about her mystical explanations.
Strange is cynical, cantankerous and at times, downright mean. "I've seen those in a gift shop," he snarls at the Chi and acupuncture schematics she shows him.
When he gets pushy with The Ancient One, she pushes back. So hard, in fact, that he's sent into another plane.
Basically, she schools him. She schools him real good.
Swinton herself took a little grief at the Hall H panel, as moderator Chris Hardwicke teased her about essentially being a real-life version of the character, who has a complete understanding of the universe (if not in her mind, then in ours).
She can relate, right?
"To like ... being really ancient?" Swinton joked. "I kind of know how that feels. Well the truth is, any of us can be the Ancient One. ... The Ancient One sis a title. … the ancient one is there kind of pulling it all out of others who have that glow."
Marvel released a new Doctor Strange trailer following the presentation in Hall H ... and like everything we've seen from the film, it's pretty mind-bending:
... but it doesn't show how much of a jerk Strange is before the uh, you know, total consciousness. So he's got that going for him.
Which is nice.
Doctor Strange is Marvel Studios' next release, due Nov. 4.
Josh Dickey is Mashable's Entertainment Editor, leading Mashable's TV, music, gaming and sports reporters as well as writing movie features and reviews.Josh has been the Film Editor at Variety, Entertainment Editor at The Associated Press and Managing Editor at TheWrap.com.A finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club's Best Entertainment Feature in 2015 for "Everyone is Altered: The Secret Hollywood Procedure that Fooled Us for Years," Josh received his BA in Journalism from The University of Minnesota.In between screenings, he can be found skating longboards, shredding guitar and wandering the streets of his beloved downtown Los Angeles.
