Fanboys Anonymous

Well, here's a big step for Marvel Studios. Perhaps finally feeling the fatigue experienced by many fans and movie goers, Devin Faraci of Badass Digest revealed Marvel's current plans with the Doctor Strange movie script, reporting that the studio is in the process of moving away from the current standard of setting up every new character's initial movie as an origin story. Instead, writer John Spaihts is working on a totally new script apart from the previous iteration that included Dr. Stephen Strange's transformation from surgeon to Sorcerer Supreme and Baron Mordo as the big bad.

This new, unofficial stance (so far, no one at Marvel Studios has confirmed the changed approach to making new superhero movies) reminds me—as well as many comic fans—of Scarlet Witch's famous quote that fixed the Marvel Universe from its dystopian House of M alternate reality in which mutants were the majority species over humanity: "No more mutants."


However, this isn't the first time a Marvel Studios movie will take place in media res. Before it became the independent powerhouse we all know after 2008's Iron Man, Marvel Studios co-produced Blade in 1998 with New Line Cinema—a film which took place mainly in media res, or when Blade was already well into his vampire hunting career. Granted, the movie had a prologue that explained how Blade became the Daywalker, but his origin didn't comprise of the entire length of the movie, unlike Tony Stark's in Iron Man or Steve Rogers' in Captain America: The First Avenger.

Now, this new approach to storytelling doesn't mean that Marvel Studios is going to do away with origin stories completely. How exactly is an audience supposed to accept that Stephen Strange is now the Sorcerer Supreme if he was a surgeon beforehand? I guarantee that somewhere in the movie there will be a brief explanation of the hows and whys of Dr. Strange's rebirth.

The "No more origin stories" approach will usher in a new era of superhero movies, though. After major hiccups like The Amazing Spider-Man (which I still thoroughly enjoy more than watching Tobey Maguire lop around and mope about his girl troubles), audiences may be relieved once other studios pick up on the probable success of the new style and finally deliver the meat of the action we usually have to wait one long introductory movie for. Imagine: if and when the current Spider-Man movie franchise finally collapses (hopefully after I get my Venom movie!), Sony—or Marvel Studios, if many fans' dreams come true—will reboot it for a third time and perhaps skip over the twice-baked Death of Uncle Ben story and skip to maybe a year after Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man—a long year of villain after villain, building upon his experience and mastery of his powers.

Obviously Ant Man's out of the picture for this new storytelling approach, but what other Marvel Studios films would you like to see receive the "No more origin stories" treatment? How do you think Doctor Strange will be handled? Tell us in the comments section below, and follow Fanboys Anonymous on every conceivable social platform for more geek news!