Having appeared in Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Hobbit films, one might think that Benedict Cumberbatch would be a Comic-Con veteran by now.  However, the actor just made his Comic-Con debut promoting the DreamWorks Animation film The Penguins of Madagascar, in which he plays a wolf.  No stranger to speculation, after he departed Hall H Cumberbatch took part in an interview with MTV News in which he actually addressed a major superhero rumor head-on: whether he will be leading Marvel’s Doctor Strange.  See his answer after the jump.

Cumberbatch has been rumored as being under consideration to lead Marvel’s upcoming supernatural comics adaptation Doctor Strange for a few months now, and the rumors became even more pronounced once it was revealed that Cumberbatch would be in San Diego to promote Penguins of Madagascar a few days before Marvel is likely to tease Doctor Strange.  Speaking with MTV News, Cumberbatch says he won’t be starring in the film, but he does suggest that he had discussions with Marvel about the role:

“As far as I’m aware, even if that was the case, it couldn’t work out because I’m doing a little play called Hamlet in London. So I don’t think I could even if that was in the cards. It sounds like a fantastic project. It’s a shame if I miss out, but who knows?”

The fact that Cumberbatch seems to know the proposed shooting dates of Doctor Strange suggests he at least had initial discussions with Marvel, and when pressed whether he actually had any real conversations about the role, the actor replied with a smirk:

“I couldn’t possibly comment.”

With Scott Derrickson (Sinister) onboard to direct, everyone is expecting Marvel to announce who will be playing the lead character in Doctor Strange on Saturday during the studio’s Hall H panel.  I’m not so sure about that (we’ve learned time and time again not to try and predict Marvel’s plans), but it certainly sounds like we can take Cumberbatch out of the running for the role.  Watch the actor address the rumors himself below: