Kevin Feige On 'Doctor Strange's Pivotal Role In 'Avengers: Infinity War'

It's no surprise that Doctor Strange ends with text on the screen announcing that "Doctor Strange will return" as Kevin Feige and Benedict Cumberbatch have already confirmed that Steven Strange will join the likes of Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson in Avengers: Infinity War. And if you've seen the Doctor Strange credits scenes, then you probably have some guesses as to how the Sorcerer Supreme will be involved in Marvel Studios' epic crossover event film.

A couple of weeks back I talked with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige about Doctor Strange (you can read the first part of the interview here). I held back some more spoiler-y discussion for after the film's opening weekend with Feige talking about how Doctor Strange will be involved in Infinity War and how the film sets up new dimensions to be explored in Infinity War and the yet-to-be-titled sequel Avengers 4. Hit the jump to see what Feige said about Doctor Strange in Infinity War and how the film might set up changes for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The following contains some spoilers from Doctor Strange, if you haven't seen the movie you might not want to read the interview clips that follow:

Peter: This film introduces a new Infinity Stone, the Time Stone.Kevin: Yes.Peter: And it's interesting because when you were first introducing these Infinity Stones, they were just these objects that were passed from person to person. But now, you know, you–Kevin: You mean what like the Tesseract was?Peter: Yeah, with the stone inside Vision, it's inside of him, and it's part of him. And now Doctor Strange, the Time Stone is part of who he is–Kevin: It's getting more specific, isn't it?Peter: Can you talk about the becoming more personal with the Infinity Stones?Kevin: Yeah. I mean, I think that's there are a couple of reasons for that. One is as you're introducing the fourth and fifth versions of these MacGuffins that we've been playing with for a long time, you wanna do something different with them and not just have them be an object passed around. So the notion that something is inherent in the literal body of one of your lead heroes is interesting. And the idea that the Eye of Agamotto's a great relic over the course of Doctor Strange comics anyway. That seemed like it had fun potential to say, you know why it can do a lot of those things? Because it's this other thing. As we then get into future movies, it also becomes certainly ripe with potential for conflict and drama that it's not something buried in a cave it's something he has to go get, but rather something in a beloved hero's head.Peter: Yeah, today you confirmed that Doctor Strange is gonna be in Infinity War. It seems to me if he has an Infinity Stone around his neck then it's gonna be a very personal battle for him going forward. Can you say anything about that?Kevin: Only that you are correct. Yes.Peter: This movie introduces dimensions, different dimensions and I kind of have the feeling that once we get into Infinity War, once Thanos gets the Infinity Gauntlet, because he's gonna get the Gauntlet, that things are gonna become a little fractured.Kevin: Right. How do you know he's gonna get the Gauntlet? You're not sure.Peter: It's not exciting if he doesn't get the Gauntlet.Kevin: Oh. God, he has to get the Gauntlet.Peter: So how much of this is like setting up some of what we might see, with our heroes in different times and dimensions and...?Kevin: Yeah, I mean, I think it clearly is setting up certain things. In the immediate future, being the movies, we've announced... I think those with knowledge of the comics may expect things that will not be happening in the movies. Those who don't know what has happened in the comics will be shocked at what we do. But yeah, once that Gauntlet is on, as the poster of Doctor Strange says, "the impossibilities are endless." How do you fight that? How can you defeat that? So we play into all of that. We play into all that stuff. I don't know that we'll get into Earth 1 thru 616 in any one moment anytime soon.

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And that is it. If you missed out on the first part of my Kevin Feige Doctor Strange interview, please check it out. We talk about how a Marvel movie is developed, learn how Dan Harmon got involved in Doctor Strange and hear Feige explain why time travel/manipulation won't ruin the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All that and more here.