Doctor Strange's first trailer enchants, disorients

DC has had its time in the limelight with the successful, despite critics' opinions, Batman v Superman, but in the coming months, Marvel, either directly or indirectly, will be hogging the theaters. In addition to Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Netflx's Luke Cage, we are looking at another MCU film near the end of the year, one that's perhaps riskier than previous films. Yes, Doctor Strange will be teleporting to cinemas in November, but not before he makes a pit stop in the film's first trailer.

Doctor Strange is really a gamble on Marvel's part. Like Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, Strange comes from an older time in Marvel's history as a company, a character that perhaps not many of today's moviegoers might be familiar with. Although perhaps more known than the previously unheard of Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange dabbles in an aspect of the Marvel universe that almost all films have so far steered clear from: magic.

But as can be seen from the trailer, Doctor Strange dives and tumbles into magic full throttle. Or at least that's the presumption. Curiously, the word "magic" is completely absent from the two-minute trailer. We hear "chakra" and "energies", hints of alternate realities, an out of body experience, and even Inception-like bending of space. But no, no "magic" at all. It will be interesting to find out how Marvel plans to spin this, if it will even acknowledge the existence of magic in its cinematic universe at all. After all, it has so far conveniently ignored the existence of mutants.

That's not the only thing that the MCU is changing in the Doctor Strange mythos. Instead of an old, bald man, the Ancient One is a young, bald androgynous being portrayed by Tilda Swinton, who also played an equally androgynous Gabriel in Constantine and a clearly female White Witch in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Like the furor that arose around Iron Fist's white casting, this change might also upset some and appease others.

Doctor Strange premieres 4th November this year.