A Doctor Strange No One Saw Coming! Kyle MacLachlan Is The Doctor!
Has Kyle MacLachlan, star of Twin Peaks, Dune, and Desperate Housewives, been picked to play Doctor Strange in the Marvel Universe?
Well… maybe.
Here’s what we do know: According to a report on i09, Kyle MacLachlan will appear on the second episode of the upcoming Marvel television hit Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a character cryptically called The Doctor.
While there has been no confirmation as to whether The Doctor character is actually Doctor Strange, the move was certainly played by Marvel to raise eyebrows. Comic book fans have been amped up before, during and after this year’s Comic-Con, wondering when Marvel was going to announce the casting choice for the assumed, upcoming Phase 3 Doctor Strange film. Putting Kyle MacLachlan in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is definitely a move to get the rumor mill spinning even faster.
But is the Kyle MacLachlan character just a red herring or did the Twin Peaks actor actually beat out the likes of Joaquin Phoenix and Johnny Depp for the coveted role? MacLachlan fits both the age and looks category when it comes to the most popular representations of the Doctor Strange character, and his cultish connections with such projects as the aforementioned Twin Peaks and films like Blue Velvet and Dune certainly give Kyle a mysterious pedigree that you’d hope the casting choice would acknowledge.
If the part does go to Kyle MacLachlan, it won’t be his first time up to bat as a major superhero. The 55 year-old actor actually played Superman in 2008 — or at least the Man of Steel’s voice — in the animated straight-to-DVD feature Justice League: The New Frontier.
Unlike D.C. — who have stated that their television comic book universes won’t necessarily cross over to their big-screen cousins — Marvel has taken characters and the actors who played them from their theater blockbusters and put them on television. Agent Coulson, played by Clark Gregg, came straight from the Marvel movies, and the show has featured guest appearances by Sam Jackson as Nick Fury, Jamie Alexander as Lady Sif, and Cobie Smulders as Agent Hill — all of whom reprise roles they played in major Marvel films, according to Movie Pilot.
However, while Marvel has brought actors and characters from the big screen to television, it’s never done the reverse. Of course, that’s not say they might not give it a shot. After all, this is a studio that just made $200 million in two weeks with a film that features a talking raccoon.
The first appearance of The Doctor — which may or may not actually be Doctor Strange played by Kyle MacLachlan — will air on Tuesday, September 30.
