>Fede Alvarez, Nikolaj Arcel, Dean Israelite, Jonathan Levine and Mark Andrews were approached to direct before Scott Derrickson was hired.
>Benedict Cumberbatch initially declined the role of Stephen Strange due to scheduling conflicts with his theater commitments. Mads Mikkelsen, Joaquin Phoenix, Jared Leto, Jake Gyllenhall, Tom Hardy, Colin Farrell, Ethan Hawke, Jack Huston, Oscar Isaac, Keanu Reeves, Matthew McConaughey, Ewan McGregor and Justin Theroux were approached to play the role before filming was delayed to accomodate Cumberbatch's schedule.
>Ken Watanabe, Morgan Freeman and Bill Nighy were approached for the Ancient One before Tilda Swinton was cast.
>Rachel McAdams had previously been approached to play Pepper Potts in IRON MAN before being cast as Christine Palmer.
>Mads Mikkelsen had previously been cast as Malekith in THOR: THE DARK WORLD, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.
>In early drafts, the Ancient One was a Asian man and Wong was not featured. When the Ancient One was made into a Celtic woman, Wong was added to the story as one of Strange's mentors rather than his manservant.
>Early drafts included Lord Nightmare, ruler of the Nightmare Dimension, but Derrickson believe that the concept was too complex for the first movie and the character would be best served being properly introduced in a sequel.
>In early drafts Strange reveals that he went through the loop thousands of times before Dormammu decided to accept his bargain, and that he remembers each and every time he died, but this was cut from the movie.
