Six months out from the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, fans still don’t have a trailer or any idea of what the film is about beyond rumours and hearsay. Thanks to toy news from Funko and Hasbro, we have gotten a good look at new costumes and character designs for the film — but a new Doctor Strange toy announcement almost blew these early looks out of the water.
In a recent tweet, toy maker Hot Toys revealed a brand new Doctor Strange figure wearing Iron Man’s armour. The announcement was hashtagged with #SpiderManNoWayHome, and appeared at first glance to be part of the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home line-up. Given it followed closely behind a look at Spider-Man’s new black-suited figure, it was easy to associate it with No Way Home.
The figure itself is highly detailed, and features a hybrid Iron Man suit complete with mystical power blast effects, floating canons, a spiral of Sling Ring power and an Eye of Agamotto chest plate.
#HotToys 1/6th scale #IronStrange collectible figure from #ConceptArt of The Art of Avengers: Endgame #SpiderManNoWayHome is available for pre-order now! https://t.co/f4ZNk0bJAW pic.twitter.com/5HZBqZpMyn
— Hot Toys (@hottoysofficial) July 15, 2021
For desperate fans, it appeared to be a major spoiler for Spider-Man: No Way Home — but smaller text in the announcement made clear it wasn’t part of the movie line-up at all.
In fact, the figure is based on concept art from Avengers: Infinity War.
Iron Strange was originally set to appear in Infinity War
The Art of Avengers: Endgame, a book detailing the creation of the epic Avengers finale, includes a look at cut scenes from Infinity War which feature Doctor Strange in hybrid Iron Man armour facing off against an unknown villain.
It appears this scene was set to take place during the space station rescue sequence of the film, and would have seen Tony Stark sending his nanobot suit to protect Doctor Strange in a moment of vulnerability.
The plan was for the suit to fuse with the Eye of Agamotto and become magically-powered, leading to a brief sequence where Iron Strange fought off the Avengers’ enemies single-handedly.
The new figure takes inspiration from this idea, which never made it into the final version of the film, and features a sleek, well-designed look at a great idea left on the cutting room floor.
But while the timing of the action figure’s release is uncanny, it doesn’t appear we’ll see this idea return for Spider-Man: No Way Home. While it briefly looked very convincing, the figure is just a concept piece.
Doctor Strange is confirmed to appear in the next Spider-Man film, but sadly he won’t be wearing this gorgeous-looking suit.
Spider-Man: No Way Home fans will have to wait a bit longer for better news. The film is currently set for release on December 26, 2021 in Australia.
In the meantime, you can catch Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and more over on Disney+.