Marvel Studios is smack-dab in the middle of shooting Doctor Strange in Nepal right now, with photos of star Benedict Cumberbatch as the good doctor having leaked onto the internet, piquing the interests of already inquisitive Marvel fans everywhere.

But, just what do we know about the actual story in the Sorcerer Supreme’s first big screen outing? Thanks to a new rumor report at Heroic Hollywood, things in the plot department are becoming a bit more clear, as well as this film’s connection to another recent Marvel film. (Big fat SPOILERS from here on out folks, so if you’re sensitive to such things, you may wish to avert your eyes.)

For starters, their sources have confirmed that while this is indeed an origin film for Stephen Strange, the movie will actually open well before Strange’s personal story begins in the modern day, and actually begins in circa 1968 Kathmandu. It’s during this time that some “Zealots of dark magic” use their abilities to open a portal to another dimension. The guy in charge of these dark magic users is a character named Kaecilius, a name taken from a character most commonly associated with Strange’s #1 baddie Baron Mordo, played here by Chiwetel Ejiofor.

After that sequence, the movie will flash forward to the present, and give us an updated version of Doctor Strange’s classic Stan Lee/Steve Ditko comic book origin story. We’ll encounter brilliant surgeon Stephen Strange, who’ll be showing off his surgical prowess to the audience by operating on a gunshot wound and making it look easy. He’ll then lose the use of his hands in a car accident, and begin his quest to restore them by any means necessary.

And here’s where things get interesting, and possibly tied to Marvel’s last hit outing, Ant-Man. At this point in the story, Strange will have an encounter with magic of some kind, as well as sub-atomic particles. Fans of Ant-Man know this probably means a journey to the micro-verse, or some variation of it. It’ll be this encounter with another dimension that leads him on a quest to find the Ancient One, played by Tilda Swinton. It’s that quest to find the Ancient One that is currently filming in Nepal.

Doctor Strange is said to have a more supernatural horror tone to it, which is why Marvel selected Sinister’s Scott Derrickson to direct. But regardless of the difference in tone to Marvel’s other films, it’s still part of a greater universe, and it’s nice to see how something like Doctor Strange is tied into to the lighter, comedic world of Ant-Man. As Marvel’s Kevin Feige is fond of saying, “It’s all connected.”

Doctor Strange is set to open on November 4, 2016. Let use know your take on these plot rumors in the comments below!

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HT: Heroic Hollywood
IMAGE: Marvel Comics