10 Things Marvel Wants You To Forget About Doctor Strange
8. The Doctor Strange TV Movie
Marvel have a long history of failed movie and TV projects that they would probably rather be forgotten about. Doctor Strange is no exception.
In 1978, CBS produced a Doctor Strange TV movie as a pilot for a potential series. It starred Peter Hooten as Strange and contained a lot of familiar elements like Wong, Clea and the mantle of the Sorcerer Supreme.
It also made some pretty big changes to the comics though. All of Strange's origin was dropped. He was now instead a psychiatrist who became involved in the supernatural through his patient Clea.
The Sorcerer Supreme was a man named Thomas Lindmer, who passed on his mantle to Strange after the witch Morgan Le Fey (played by Arrested Development and Archer star Jessica Walter) tried to kill him through the distinctly unmagical means of pushing him off a bridge.
Unlike some of Marvel's other attempts to branch out into films, it wasn't completely horrible. However, the film's incredibly slow pace (Doctor Strange doesn't even put on a costume until the final act) and the fact that it was up against the landmark series Roots caused it to get very low ratings and the planned series was canned.