‘Doctor Strange’ Trailer Debuts On ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ And It’s Otherworldly

Jimmy Kimmel Live! got to debut the worldwide exclusive trailer for Marvel Studio’s Doctor Strange, and it looks as if this is going to be their most visually spellbinding picture yet. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch stopped by to have a chat with Kimmel and deliver the first bit of footage from Doctor Strange, reports Entertainment Weekly.

It's like the Matrix meets mysticism #DoctorStrange pic.twitter.com/QaXTXKh9Py

— Dorian Parks (@DorianParksnRec) April 13, 2016

What we get with this first Doctor Strange trailer is a very mystical, otherworldly tone with the film, featuring the Sorcerer Supreme. Director Scott Derrickson (Deliver Us from Evil, Sinister) in December of 2015 briefly talked about the tone of the film and said, “Benedict has got an incredibly complicated emotional structure going on.” Derrickson added, “What you can expect from the Doctor Strange film is a mind trip action film.”

“A mind trip action film” seems like a bit of a strange way to describe the film, considering that Derrickson has previously directed films with very heavy horror elements. Some fans felt that the film would be heading in that dark direction and possibly play around with horror-esque imagery. After all, Stephen Strange does deal with demons occasionally. But from this teaser trailer, those elements don’t appear to be in the film — or at least just the footage that is shown.

The trailer begins with a voiceover from Chiwetel Ejiofor, who says, “Stephen Strange…might I offer you some advice? Forget everything that you think you know.” Ejiofor is playing Baron Mordo, who has usually been an adversary of Doctor Strange in the comics. Mordo doesn’t appear to be villainous in the trailer. In fact, it seems that he may even be helping him on his journey. Certainly set photos of Cumberbatch and Ejiofor in a scene together don’t feel like they have a hero vs. villain relationship.

Tilda Swinton, as The Ancient One, is the next voice we hear, seemingly telling Stephen Strange, “You’re a man looking at the world through a keyhole.” We then see Strange being rushed to the emergency room after a terrible car accident. And in this moment, we catch our very first brief glimpse of Rachel McAdams’ character, whose name has yet to be revealed, although apparently she’s playing either a doctor or a nurse.

“Your work saved the lives of thousands,” The Ancient One says, referring to Stephen Strange’s career as a brilliant surgeon. In the comics, after the car accident, he’s no longer able to use his hands the same way, and he searches the globe trying to find a way to fix them. It looks like the film adaptation will be following that origin story pretty closely.

“I don’t believe in fairy tales about chakras or energy or the power of belief,” Strange says — and from that line, it’s very clear that Cumberbatch went with an American accent. That was something that many fans were curious about, whether or not Benedict Cumberbatch would be giving Doctor Strange an American accent or using his own natural accent. From the first teaser trailer, it’s evident that Strange was raised in the States.

When The Ancient One is finally revealed on screen, we are shown a bald Tilda Swinton training Stephen Strange in a very cool-looking room, which could be described as a Tibetan equivalent of a Japanese dojo. It’s not made clear whether they are in Tibet or China, but they are definitely somewhere in Asia. In the comics, The Ancient One has traditionally been portrayed as an Asian man, and Feige explains their decision to change the character’s gender as “an interesting idea.”

After seeing some pretty mind-bending and trippy special effects, we’re also given a quick shot of Mads Mikkelsen — although it might be easy to miss him. It’s been reported that Mikkelsen is playing a Doctor Strange villain, and his name hasn’t been revealed. But whoever he is, he is certainly skilled at crafting these very Inception-like visual reality-bending acts.

The trailer end with a very awestruck Stephen Strange looking up at The Ancient One and pleading, “teach me.” We’re given just enough to get a feel of what the movie might ultimately be. However, in a few months, we may get a new trailer showing a completely different side of the film.

"You wonder what I see in your future? Possibility." pic.twitter.com/8IVll143VK

— Doctor Strange (@DrStrange) April 13, 2016

What did you think of the very first Doctor Strange trailer? A synopsis for the film can be found below.

“After his career is destroyed, a brilliant but arrogant and conceited surgeon gets a new lease on life when a sorcerer takes him under his wing and trains him to defend the world against evil.”

Doctor Strange is set to hit theaters later this year on November 4, 2016.

[Photo via YouTube/Marvel Studios]