In New York City, Dr. Stephen Strange, a wealthy, acclaimed, and arrogant neurosurgeon, severely injures his hands in a car crash while en route to a speaking conference, leaving him permanently unable to operate.

Strange learns that Earth is protected from threats from other dimensions by a shield generated from three Sanctums in New York City, London, and Hong Kong, which are all directly accessible from Kamar-Taj.

Strange returns the Eye, which is revealed to hold an Infinity Stone, back to Kamar-Taj and takes up residence in the New York Sanctum to continue his studies with Wong.

[60] Doctor Strange comic writer Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance as a bus rider reading Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception.

[58][63] A film based on the Marvel Comics character Doctor Strange was initially listed as being in development at New World Pictures,[64] with a script dated January 21, 1986, by Bob Gale, which never went further into production.

[71] By April 2000, Columbia dropped Doctor Strange, which then had Michael France attached to write a script and interest from Chuck Russell and Stephen Norrington to direct.

This cost Derrickson an "obnoxious amount" of his own money, but he felt it necessary to prove "that I wanted [the job] more than anyone", especially after Marvel told him that more people had lobbied to direct Doctor Strange than any of their other films.

[95] Derrickson was already hired when Spaihts joined, and the pair spent several months working on the film's story with Feige and executive producer Stephen Broussard.

[98] By the end of June, Marvel had reportedly been looking at Tom Hardy and Jared Leto for the film's lead as well,[97][100] while Édgar Ramírez, who worked with Derrickson on 2014's Deliver Us from Evil, had discussed a possible role with the director.

"[108] Marvel then placed Leto, Ethan Hawke, Oscar Isaac, Ewan McGregor, Matthew McConaughey, Jake Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, and Keanu Reeves on their shortlist for the character.

[119] In June 2015, Derrickson announced that he was going to London to begin work on the film,[120] and Feige confirmed that Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum would appear, located on Bleecker Street in New York City's Greenwich Village, as in the comics.

"[125] In September 2015, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn stated that many of the crew that worked on that film were unable to return for its sequel, because they had committed to Doctor Strange.

[137] Frank advised on "the human experience of space and time", helping Marvel conceive ideas for their cinematic multiverse, and suggesting dialogue for characters based on their beliefs, whether they were materialist, rationalist, reductionist, or "had this enlarged perspective.

[139][140] Ben Davis, serving as cinematographer for the film after doing the same on Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron, described Doctor Strange as Marvel's Fantasia, and noted that a lot of previsualization was required to figure out how to shoot the "psychedelic", M. C. Escher-inspired imagery.

[147] The inside of Kamar-Taj was also constructed at Longcross, with "sculptors creating beautiful columns and wall decorations and craftsmen building screens and doors to evoke the exotic feel of the ancient sanctuary."

[140][155] The next month, Feige revealed that the film originally had a prologue that took place in CERN, due to the real world research being done at the facility on alternate dimensions and parallel universes.

[164] Dan Harmon wrote material for these additional scenes,[165] which Derrickson described as "script analysis and dialogue work", not enough to receive credit in the film.

[188][189] Clark Collis of Entertainment Weekly compared the "series of kaleidoscopic, world-bending scenes" featured in the trailer to the film Inception,[189] as did Scott Mendelson of Forbes.

[190] The Hollywood Reporter's Graeme McMillian criticized these similarities, as well as similarities to The Matrix and between Cumberbatch's American accent and that of Hugh Laurie's Gregory House from House, calling them not "necessarily a real problem, of course ... [but] there's nothing there outside the derivative aspects: due to the nature of the trailer, there's no story beyond the 'white man finds enlightenment in Asia' trope and barely any dialogue to let audiences decide that maybe the performances will elevate the material."

[193] Derrickson, Cumberbatch, Swinton, Ejiofor, McAdams, Mikkelsen, and Wong attended San Diego Comic-Con 2016, where they debuted an exclusive clip and the second trailer for the film.

A partnership with Google's Tilt Brush app featured a "Mixed Reality" "stunt with artists across Los Angeles, London, and Hong Kong, inspired by different dimensions in Doctor Strange and recreating the worlds in VR for an immersive visual experience.

The digital and Blu-ray releases include behind-the-scenes featurettes; audio commentary; deleted scenes; a blooper reel; an exclusive preview of the Phase Three films Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.

[213] Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $122.65 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it 11th on their list of 2016's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".

The website's critical consensus reads, "Doctor Strange artfully balances its outré source material against the blockbuster constraints of the MCU, delivering a thoroughly entertaining superhero origin story in the bargain.

[38] Alonso Duralde, reviewing for TheWrap said, "True, Doctor Strange is an origin story, and occasionally hemmed in by the genre's narrative requirements, but it's smart enough to bring in great British actors to make the predictable paces and life lessons feel fresh and fascinating."

Regarding the film's visuals, Duralde praised them, exclaiming, "In a year where bloated, empty spectacles have induced a crushing level of CG fatigue, this funny, freaky adventure reminds us of how effective VFX can be when they've got some imagination behind them.

"[231] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said, "The giddily enjoyable Doctor Strange ... is part of Marvel's strategy for world domination, yet it's also so visually transfixing, so beautiful and nimble that you may even briefly forget the brand.

"[232] Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times said, "Within the familiar narrative contours of the origin story, writer-director Scott Derrickson crams in enough out-of-body experiences, spatial-temporal shenanigans and dazzlingly kaleidoscopic visuals to make you wonder if he and his co-writers ... were dropping acid behind the scenes.

"[233] Conversely, Angelica Jade Bastién, writing for RogerEbert.com, said, "For all of its wondrous world-building and trippy effects, Doctor Strange isn't the evolutionary step forward for Marvel that it needs to be storytelling-wise.

"[235] Rex Reed of The New York Observer called Doctor Strange "an awkwardly cliché-riddled mix of hamstrung imagination and bizarro reality" and said, "None of it makes any sense... For characterization, dialogue, narrative arc, acceptable acting and coherence, go elsewhere.