Benedict Cumberbatch may have landed the role of Doctor Strange for Marvel. But it seems Ethan Hawke ran him close.
Benedict Cumberbatch is now safely in place as Marvel's Doctor Strange, in the upcoming movie of the same now.
Before Cumberbatch was confirmed in the role however, there was no shortage of speculation as to who else might land it. And one name that bubbled to the fore was Ethan Hawke, who of course previously worked with Scott Derrickson on Sinister.
It seems in this instance, however, that there was a little fire to the proverbial smoke. Chatting to the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Hawke admitted that he came "as close as anybody could" to landing the role. Well, not quite as close as Benedict Cumberbatch, but we get the point. He admitted that he had "a sneaky suspicion that Scott wanted me for [Doctor Strange] too."
Admitting he was "totally open" to a Marvel-like project, Hawke did go on to note that "there's a tremendous amount of salesmanship that's now really important to a studio like that. It's a tremendous amount of time in your life where you're working, and not acting," he said of the inevitable promotional tours and such like that come with the job.
We're going to be seeing Hawke a fair bit over the coming year, with projects such as Predestination, Good Kill, Anarchy, Born To Be Blue, Regression, and In A Valley Of Violence all tentatively scheduled to hit cinemas this year. His choices of films continue to be interesting, and it might be a good thing that he continues down his current path, rather than switching to blockbusters.
