Patrick Stewart Responds to Professor X Cameo in ‘Doctor Strange’ Trailer
According to Wikipedia (which is never wrong), Patrick Stewart has been cast in “an undisclosed role” in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. While we don’t see Stewart in the new Doctor Strange trailer, it certainly sounds like him speaking to Strange at the home base of some kind of multiversal authority. It’s all a big tease, but you have to think that Stewart plays a version of Professor Xavier in the film, his character from the X-Men franchise. In Marvel Comics, Xavier is part of a group called the Illuminati that protect the Marvel Universe from threats too big for any one superhero or team to handle alone. So perhaps Xavier is about to be introduced to the MCU as one of the members of MCU’s Illuminati?
According to Patrick Stewart, though, none of that is happening. he was asked about “his” role in the Doctor Strange trailer by ComicBook.com, and he claimed that’s not him, even though you can hear his very distinctive voice. “You know,” Stewart said, “people have been imitating my voice ever since I came on the stage 60 years ago. So I can’t be held responsible for that.”
He also claimed that after Logan, he had no interest in reprising his role as Xavier, especially since the character technically died in that film:
Here’s the problem... If we had not made Logan, then yes, I would probably be ready to get into that wheelchair one more time and be Charles Xavier. But Logan changed all that. Here’s a tiny anecdote. The first time that Hugh [Jackman] and I saw the film in public was at the Berlin Film Festival, which is where the movie premiered. Shortly after Xavier’s death scene, I found myself getting very emotional, but I had to keep a hold of myself because we were sitting in the middle of this cinema. And then I saw Hugh’s hand come up to his eye and wipe away a tear. I thought, ‘Dammit, the bugger's crying. Oh, let it out, Patrick.’
Here’s the thing: We’re now very used to actors lying in interviews to protect secret movie roles. Andrew Garfield lied for a year straight to preserve Spider-Man: No Way Home’s surprises. But Marvel itself didn’t tease Garfield’s appearance in that movie even single time. Everyone was lying if you want to get technical about it. Here Marvel has straight up told people Patrick Stewart is in this movie in some form. To say after that that he’s not in the movie, and it’s a vocal impersonator well ... uh ... that’s got to be the best vocal impersonator in Hollywood.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is scheduled to open in theaters on May 6, 2022.