Marvel Studios has a practice of meeting talent way ahead of time to discuss a possible future collaboration, and numerous actors and creators have shared their experiences meeting Marvel head Kevin Feige over the years. Recently, The Sandman creator Neil Gaiman revealed on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast that he once pitched a Doctor Strange movie set in the 1920s, to the studio with Guillermo del Toro set to direct.

In the recent live podcast, Horowitz inquired about Marvel and DC consulting him about various characters, to which Gaiman said, "Kevin and I have spoken a few times over the years on things." He went on to share the anecdote that back in 2007 he had a “minimalistic conversation" with Feige and "starting the beginning of the conversation with Kevin about 'I could do Doctor Strange with Guillermo.'” He further revealed that the studio reasoned with him as they “just want to concentrate on the core characters right now. Doctor Strange is way up the line. We don't want to go there.'"

Back in 2007, Marvel Studio was in a tight spot to launch the movies based on the characters they owned at the moment. Iron Man turned out to be the breakout character with Robert Downey Jr as the titular character and Jon Favreau at the helm. It propelled the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Chris Evans’ Captain America and Chris Hemsworth’s Thor joining Iron Man to become the big three of the franchise. Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange finally made his debut in 2016 so certainly, Gaiman was years ahead of Marvel with his pitch. He further revealed that his pitch had some really “cool things.” He also went on to share his favorite idea: “the one thing that we really wanted to do was have his adventures, have him become an alcoholic and a disbarred physician, all that sort of stuff, happen in the 1920s.”

Avengers_ Infinity War - Doctor Strange

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Further elaborating, Gaiman revealed that they wanted the Sorcerer Supreme to be a man “out of time:

“So the idea is that he went through all of that and the training to become the world's greatest magician maybe in the early '30s, late '20s, and he's been living in Greenwich Village for 90 years looking the same in his place, and nobody really notices. We just sort of liked that idea, and he would have been sort of out of time. But other than that, it would have just been very sort of Steve Ditko because, you know, that's the best."

Gaiman also noted that he thinks "the way they did it commercially was better.” The film finally went to Scott Derrickson and went on to make $677.8 million at the box office. However, he stepped down from the sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which was then helmed by Sam Raimi.

Both Doctor Strange movies are streaming on Disney+, while you can see The Sandman on Netflix. Meanwhile, you can check out the full podcast episode with Gaiman below: