‘Doctor Strange’ Film Updates, Cast: New TV Spot Teases Avengers Connection; Benedict Cumberbatch Talks Challenges with Martial Arts

‘Doctor Strange’ released a new television spot that teased an Avengers connection. Meanwhile, Benedict Cumberbatch talked about his challenges with his new role especially with martial arts.

According to Comicbook.com, Benedict Wong’s character Wong namedropped the Avengers in the latest television spot for Scott Derrickson’s upcoming installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) Phase Three. Wong tells Benedict Cumberbatch’s Stephen Strange a.k.a. Doctor Strange, "Heroes like the Avengers protect the world from physical dangers… We safeguard it from more mystical threats."

Wong plays Wong, a drill sergeant to Kamar-Taj. According to Comic Book Movie, the new spot featured glimpses of familiar superheroes including the Hulk, Captain America, and Iron Man.

Although the Avengers themselves aren’t set to appear in the upcoming standalone film for one of Marvel’s most iconic superheroes, the film may connect with Joe and Anthony Russo’s ‘Avengers: Infinity War’.

Cumberbatch previously confirmed that his character is set to appear in the ‘Avengers’ film. The 40-year old English actor admitted that although his new Marvel role was challenging, he was excited for it. According to News.com.au, he said, “It’s a physical jam this role, definitely, but it’s kind of fun.”

He continued, “There is a certain room for me improving as well as the character improving so a learning process both purposefully and accidentally because I’m not from a martial arts background… I may have done judo when I was eight but only for five sessions.”

Cumberbatch added, “It was one of those things I picked up and tried and I remember my brain rattling and thinking ‘this really hurts you know’, there are mats and you have to learn to fall properly but it hurt. Weirdly, I played a lot of contact sport but not martial arts and when it was a competitive thing fighting one other person I was a little bit squeamish — but fascinated by the discipline of it and how it’s achieved in movies as well.”

Derrickson’s film follows the story of a brilliant yet arrogant neurosurgeon who gets into a car accident that leaves him crippled. His handicapped state leaves his medical career ruined and he decides to travel to Nepal to study the mystic arts and find a cure. During his journey, he meets The Ancient One and is trained to become the world’s Master of Mystic Arts Doctor Strange.

‘Doctor Strange’ is an upcoming action-adventure and fantasy film produced by Marvel Studios. It is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in the United States. It is scheduled to be released on November 4, 2016.