Now that the Ant-Man situation has been more or less settled, it looks as though the focus of speculation for the next month or so (at least until they announce more at the San Diego Comic-Con) will likely be Marvel’s Doctor Strange movie. Last week it was confirmed that Scott Derrickson (Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) would be directing the film and that Jon Aibel and Glenn Berger (Kung Fu Panda) will likely be writing the script. The next step is to cast the film and, in particular, find the right actor to play Doctor Strange himself. Although it’s still early, this week we’ve got our first glimpse at a couple of the names that they have in mind for the lead role. Hit the jump for more details.

According to Deadline, Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch are Marvel’s top choices to play Doctor Strange, a former neurosurgeon charged with protecting the Earth against magical and mystical threats. Supposedly these aren’t the only actors on their wishlist, but they are probably the two biggest names they are looking at right now. As far as we know, neither of them have actually been approached about the project as of yet.

Marvel has been casting plenty of Brits as of late (Charlie Cox was announced as Daredevil just a couple of weeks ago), but this is a role where it would seem particularly expected even though Stephen Strange is actually from Philadelphia. Previous rumours had pegged both Viggo Mortensen and Justin Theroux for the role. Of course, Hardy and Cumberbatch are in high demand right now and I suspect they might be a tad too pricey for Marvel. Who would you like to see play the Sorcerer Supreme?