Doctor Strange: Benedict Cumberbatch's secret role revealed

Turns out, the beloved British actor wasn't just playing the titular cloaked hero in Marvel's latest

*WARNING: SPOILERS FOR DOCTOR STRANGE*

Benedict Cumberbatch officially entered the Marvel universe with Doctor Strange, like a Tumblr dream come true; but did you know he wasn't just playing the titular cloaked hero?

The film's promotion may have heavily hinted Mad Mikkelsen's Kaecilius would be the primary villain for the psychedelic adventure, but we soon discovered the rebellious former student of the Ancient One was in fact in the service of dark dimension ruler Dormammu.

And who was the cloud-like entity voiced by? None other than Cumberbatch himself, quietly making him both the hero and villain of Doctor Strange ; proof he's one actor not to be underestimated in his capabilities. However, Cumberbatch's recognisable tones were quietly disguised by mixing his voice in with another actor's, so that audiences wouldn't be able to recognise it.

"The reason for that was threefold," director Scott Derrickson told Empire. "One, Benedict suggested it. [Two], the awesomeness of his voice – he was Smaug, of course. [Three,] he understood exactly who Dormammu was. He's the ultimate cosmic narcissist. There was something great about the mirrored relationship between the two of them."

Dormammu's inclusion was also a deliberate inversion of Marvel's traditional third act climaxes; with Derrickson explaining, "It was literally the play on that whole, 'oh, every Marvel movie ends with a city being destroyed during a fight, and then a portal that opens is closed just in time'. I said, ‘well, dammit, we're going to un-destroy a city and we're gonna leave the portal open and Strange is going to go into it and we're going to see what's on the other side. That's how fresh my movie is, dammit!'"

Strange leaps into the portal after Hong Kong's destruction to face Dormammu; reversing time so as to trap the villain in an infinite loop of his own death until Dormammu finally concedes his victory, which was specified in a cut line. "We had a line," Derrickson said, "Where Strange said, ‘we've been through this a thousand times'. Literally. I fancied the idea that they went through it thousands of times before Dormammu finally realised he wasn't going to get out of it."

Doctor Strange is out now.