In Awesome Casting News today, Tilda Swinton is in talks to join Benedict Cumberbatch in Marvel's upcoming "Doctor Strange."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Swinton is close to making a deal to play The Ancient One, a Tibetan mystic who mentors Cumberbatch's Dr. Stephen Strange, a brilliant, cocky surgeon who loses both of his hands. While trying to heal himself, he discovers magic and receives training from The Ancient One.

In the comic books, The Ancient One is male — Morgan Freeman and Ken Watanabe were names floated for the role — but it seems director Scott Derrickson is ready to mix things up. Whether Swinton will play the part as male or female is undetermined, but either possibility is intriguing.

Adding a brilliantly eccentric performer like Swinton to the movie is a sign that Marvel is prepared to shake up its formula for future movies.

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