Rumors: Rachel McAdams For 'Doctor Strange,' Bryan Singer For 'Fantastic Four 2'

With Comic Con hitting this week we'll learn a lot more about projects that are coming up in the next couple years, especially on the superhero front. But even before the big event begins, we've got a couple rumors about possible developments for two films we'll be talking about over the next couple years. One is Doctor Strange, and the rumor isn't entirely dismissible. The other concerns Fantastic Four 2, and seems more far-fetched.

Heroic Hollywood claims that Rachel McAdams, currently being seen every Sunday night in True Detective, has been offered a role in Doctor Strange. Scott Derrickson is directing the film from a script by Jon Spaihts, and the movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, an arrogant surgeon whose hands are damaged, leading him to more than one kind of personal reinvention.

The site doesn't say what role McAdams might be up for, but one possibility is Clea, a student of Strange's and ultimately a woman who can compete with him on a mystical level. That sounds like the sort of character Marvel is going for more often in its films, but we still don't know a lot about the Strange script. So we'll have to wait for more info on that angle.

Doctor Strange opens on November 4, 2016.

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And then there's talk, via This Is Infamous, that Fox wants Bryan Singer to direct Fantastic Four 2. At this point, since the first Fantastic Four hasn't opened and the sequel isn't officially greenlit (despite Fox planting a flag on a release date) it might be a bit early to talk about what's next.

There has been a lot of rumor and speculation about the work director Josh Trank has done for Fantastic Four, especially in the wake of his leaving the Star Wars Anthology series. (Or his being forced to leave, as many stories have it.) And Bryan Singer has proven to be Fox's go-to talent for the X-Men series, so him taking part in Fantastic Four 2 could also lead towards the FF/X-Men crossover that so many have speculated about, and which is also part of this rumor.

That said, Singer has an X-Men movie to finish (X-Men: Apocalypse is still shooting) with an eye on a May 27, 2016 release date. Fantastic Four 2 is currently slated for June 9 2017, which would leave just over a year for that sequel. Time enough for many movies, and not even out of the realm of possibility for a film like this. (Apocalypse began shooting in late April of this year, so by the time it hits, it will have had the same turnaround time.)

But add in the work to build Fantastic Four 2 towards an X-Men crossover, and perhaps there are more contracts to deal with and ground work to lay. So this isn't the most outlandish story we've heard, but we remain skeptical. In the meantime, we'd just like to see Josh Trank's film.

Fantastic Four opens on August 7 of this year.