For their next trick, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is expanding into the Quantum Realm with Doctor Strange. Now word comes that Marvel Studios has conjured up a slightly earlier release date for UK audiences.
The fourteenth film in the MCU will now be released in the UK on Tuesday 25 October, a full three days earlier than the original 28 October date. It’s now a good week-and-a-bit ahead of American audiences, who will not get their first look at Stephen Strange until 4 November.
This is fairly standard practice for Marvel, who tend to stagger release dates internationally, generally favouring the UK and other European territories over the US on who gets the first look – a habit that started with 2010’s Iron Man 2.
Scott Derrickson is directing the mystical superhero movie, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the slick surgeon turned Sorcerer Supreme, shored up by a cast that includes a slap-headed Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo, Rachel McAdams as a non-magical medic, and Mads Mikkelsen on villain duties as the tricky-to-spell-without-Googling Kaecilius.
There’s more on Doctor Strange in the latest issue of Empire, including some chatter from Cumberbatch on how to make a 40-year-old character relevant to modern audiences – on sale in all good and strange newsagents now.