Marvel fans have been enjoying the Disney+ shows thus far in general. But with WandaVision in particular, a lot of hype was built up around the appearance of Doctor Strange in the series finale. Fans who had speculated the Sorcerer Supreme would make an appearance were not wrong. It turns out Marvel indeed did have plans to have Benedict Cumberbatch appear in the finale for the show to lead directly into the Doctor Strange sequel.
Marvel even finalized a deal with the actor to appear in the show. The plan was to have him be responsible for the commercials as a subtle way to send Wanda a message. So frustratingly then, it begs the question of just what went wrong? In an interview with Rolling Stones, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige explains why Strange was written out of the show at the last minute.
Some people might say, ‘Oh, it would’ve been so cool to see Doctor Strange. But It would have taken away from Wanda. We didn’t want the end of the show to be commoditized to go to the next movie – here’s the white guy, ‘Let me show you how power works.
Looking at it from Feige’s perspective does make some sense. We can already see how the expectation of Strange appearing itself was enough to disappoint fans when they realized the futility of it. Had Strange actually appeared, Marvel might have set an incorrect benchmark of even bigger movie stars making appearances in their Disney+ shows, leaving the shows incomplete without those.
Of course as things stand, the shows are already way too big and no less than movies themselves. And they already have a lot of the stars from the movies: Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan and Tom Hiddleston are no slouches. The fact that we’re getting them in a TV Show with movie level production qualities is solace enough that we shouldn’t be expecting any bigger characters to make appearances in the shows any time soon. And as a viewer, I’m perfectly all for it.
That said, I’m definitely not opposed to the idea of a major character dropping in if it makes sense to the show’s proceedings. What do you think though? Do you think Feige should’ve kept Strange in WandaVision? Sound off in the comments below.
