The Martian’s Benedict Wong to play Doctor Strange’s assistant Wong

By William Hughes | January 22, 2016 | 12:12am

Aux Features Film

In news that feels like a copy editor’s headache just starting to struggle to painful, throbbing life, The Martian co-star Benedict Wong has been cast in Marvel’s Doctor Strange as Wong, the doctor’s loyal and long-suffering mystical assistant. Actor-Wong is a prolific performer these days; besides The Martian, he currently stars as Kublai Khan on Netflix’s Marco Polo, and showed up for space-based shenanigans in both Prometheus and Moon. (Those who prefer their nerdery in a more terrestrial and comedic form, meanwhile, will probably remember him from the Countdown-based episode of The IT Crowd.)

Wong-The-Character, meanwhile, is a long-standing part of the Doctor Strange tradition, serving as the magic-wielding Alfred to Strange’s popped-collar Bruce Wayne. Created in 1963, the character pretty much exists to serve his mystic master’s every whim, although writers have gifted him with a plotline or two of his own over the years. It remains to be seen how the film adaptation—which stars Benedict Cumberbatch, furthering the onymous confusion—will treat a character who’s often been seen as little more than an accessory to his master, and whether the two Wongs will ultimately be able to make a right. (Sorry.)