It looks like Marvel has finally chosen an actor to playDoctor Strange in the Scott Derrickson directed film. After years of rumors, lists and speculation, Deadline reports that Benedict Cumberbatch is their man!

Over the last four years, there have been eighteen actors rumored for the coveted role, and Cumberbatch was among them. Joaquin Phoenix was in discussions for the part for awhile, but the talks eventually fizzled and the actor dropped out. Marvel had to go back to square one when that happened. Now they are back on track and ready to move forward.

The report says that the studio is about to start the negotiation process, which means both parties are interested in sealing the deal. Deadline also says they expect the deal to close, so I guess we can too.

Doctor Strange is based on the character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and he made his first appearance in 1963’s “Strange Tales” #110. Strange was a brilliant neurosurgeon, but after a car accident, he loses the precision in his hands, and he goes on a quest to regain his former skills. This leads him on a path to becoming the “Master of the Mystic Arts.”

Ever since Cumberbatch was first rumored to be up for the Sorcerer Supreme,  Are you excited to hear that Cumberbatch will be playing Stephen Strange?

Marvel has released a new promo photo from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and it gives us our first look at Adrianne Palicki sporting her Mockingbird tactical suit. She also had blonde-ish hair in the photo, which is different from the first picture that we saw of her.

The character was introduced as the head of Hydra Security in last night’s episode, “A Hen in the Wolfhouse.” Joss Whedon talked about the character in an interview with Marvel, saying,

“Bobbi Morse is a well-seasoned spy whose ability to slip in and out of undercover situations seamlessly will prove invaluable to our team. But her appearance comes as a gut-punch to Hunter, as the history they share is complicated to say the least.”

Costume Designer Ann Foley explained how the suit design pays homage to the character’s comic book origins.

“I looked at all of her comic appearances and really wanted to try to bring elements of the look from the comics into the costume that we’re doing now for the show because I know it’s important to the fans. It’s important to me to keep certain elements, but we had to change it, obviously, for practicality, because it had to fit into our world. It had to have a kind of tactical feeling to it too so that it made sense in our universe.

“She’s got rivets that are in the straps across her chest, and those are there as a tribute to the buttons that go down the side of her [most recent] costume [in the comics], as well as the colors that we were using, [which] are a tribute as well. Her colors are navy blue and white with a little bit of black in there, [but] white would not have been pretty on camera so we changed it to grey. [We] still tried to maintain the original style of what was in the comic book because [with] that white panel that goes up her center and down her legs, [so] we’ve mirrored that in her costume but in gray instead of white.”

I also included a piece of concept art that was released as well.

You know that awesome Quicksilver prison break scene that we all loved from X-Men: Days of Future Past? Well, second unit director Brian Smrz revealed in an interview with Newsarama that it was he who did most of the work on bringing that scene to life instead of director Bryan Singer. He also throws out a few hints about X-Men: Apocalypse and a possible solo movie for Quicksilver. Here’s what he said about working on the prison break scene:

“Probably the most memorable part of the film was getting the chance to work closely with almost all of the main cast in various scenes. As far as a particular scene that sticks out the most, I’d say the kitchen sequence with Quicksilver. I ended up doing a lot of that,” he revealed before adding, “I did most of it, to be honest. I have a great relationship with Bryan Singer, and he really let me do a lot there. The scenes where they enter, as well as parts where they’re frozen – I did most of it. It’s very time consuming, especially with the phantom camera and the rain. Bryan was there and did some of the key parts, but I did the rest.”

When asked what we should expect from the sequel, he wouldn’t give away many details away. But he did say that there will be another Quicksilver scene, and that he is really looking forward to doing it. Smrz was then asked if he was interested in directing his own movies, and if there are any currently in the pipeline. This was his reply:

“We talked about Quicksilver before, I’d love to do a Quicksilver as a solo film because there’s a lot to enjoy with that character. But I’m not geared just towards superhero movies; for me it’s about great main characters, and finding movies that have that.”

So there has at least been some talk about a standalone Quicksilver movie, which would be amazing. There was a rumor that hit a couple weeks ago about Quicksilver possibly leading a new X-Men TV series that is in development. Nothing has been confirmed for that though, which means anything could happen with the character at this point. All I know is that I would love to see more Quicksilver.