Is this our first look at Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange?

Film fans – and ‘Cumberbitches’ – rejoiced when British actor Benedict Cumberbatch was cast as the lead in 2016’s Doctor Strange earlier this month. The film’s not out for another couple of years, but that hasn’t stopped the film’s director, Scott Derrickson, from giving us a potential glimpse of his actor as the Sorcerer Supreme. Below is his tweet from Sunday:

https://twitter.com/scottderrickson/status/546913777396891648

The tweet poses a number of questions: did Cumberbatch get into costume and make-up (his ‘tache) especially for a photo session? Has Derrickson already held early costume fittings? Or is this more of a mock-up of Cumberbatch’s likeness to give us an idea of what he will eventually look like? Either way, it’s an incredibly interesting piece of art; now that we’ve been given a visual tease as to what exec. producer Kevin Feige was talking about when he described Doctor Strange as Marvel’s first foray into ‘the supernatural’, we can only look forward to see what the entire film – and indeed the actor – has in store for us aesthetically.