Just days after the announcement that Jamie Foxx was in talks to reprise his role as the villain Electro, another Marvel Cinematic Universe will be joining the next installment of the Marvel Studios/Sony Pictures Spider-Man film franchise. Doctor Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, will be on call as the mentor figure in Peter’s life, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The mentor role that was previously occupied by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) in Spider-Man: Far From Home will now fall to Dr. Strange, who Peter first met and teamed up with in space during Avengers: Infinity War.
Having Strange as part of Spider-Man story may help explain Electro’s return, as the Doctor Strange sequel, Doctor Strange, and the Multiverse of Madness is set to explore alternate realities that have led fans to speculate that events from the two films with becoming intertwined somehow.
Spider-Man 3 will be directed by Jon Watts, who also directed both Spider-Man: Homecoming and last year’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, and is scheduled to begin shooting in Atlanta later in October. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is set to also begin production this month with filming in London. Marvel and Sony had no comment on the casting news.
The unnamed Spider-Man 3 installment is tentatively set to release December 17, 2021.