WIll Doctor Strange’s Ancient One Be a Man or a Woman?

Doctor Strange has to be the most anticipated superhero movie there is. He’s arguably the biggest Marvel comic that hasn’t been adapted into a movie, and now some interesting news has come in about Tilda Swinton, who will be playing The Ancient One, except she can’t decide whether she wants to play the character as a man or a woman.

The Guardian and Screen Crush confirm that Tilda is not sure if she will play the Ancient One as a woman or a man, and as the Guardian succinctly put it, this is definitely a “Swinton-esque twist.”

It’s interesting that this news came along as we’re becoming more aware of transgender people, and why not have a superhero character that’s sexually ambiguous? Again, as we’ve reported many times at TG, a lot of boundaries have been breaking down in comics, so it could be a pretty bold move to have a woman playing a man in Doctor Strange, and it’s great that Marvel’s moving in some atypical directions, which is what superhero movies will need to do in order to survive.

Doctor Strange, which will have Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, will be hitting theaters on November 4, 2016.