The 2016 movie Doctor Strange introduced an interesting Marvel comic character. Audiences discovered another human-turned-superhero, similar to the transformations of Spider-Man and the Hulk.
Stephen Strange was a renowned surgeon who lost the use of his hands in a car accident and then acquired amazing magical powers. Strange’s story as a superhero was interwoven into the Marvel Avengers movies where he takes on an increasingly important role.
From Doctor Strange to Avengers: Endgame to the 2022 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Strange follows a circuitous course in time. It becomes difficult to know just where he fits in with the events and progression of the MCU and how old he is in them.
How old is Doctor Strange in the MCU timeline? By combining comic and movie references, we can narrow down Strange’s age to progress from his 20s to his 40s.
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Doctor Strange’s Background
Based on the Marvel Comics, Stephen Strange was born in 1930 and entered pre-med college studies right out of high school. He was about age 18 at this point.
Strange then studied at Columbia University and earned an M.D. and Ph.D. At that point, he was already gifted and drew on his photographic memory to quickly advance through his studies.
As a young adult, Doctor Strange specialized in neurological surgery and began a five-year residency at New York Hospital. He was probably in his early 20s by then.
We can use this background to give an approximate age when the Doctor Strange movie picks up Strange’s life. But we cannot go by the comic dates since that would make Strange too old–he would be in his 90s in 2016.
The year 2016 did mark a turning point in Strange’s life, though. Based on the movie, we know that he had been practicing medicine for about four years by that point because he had been in New York in 2012 during the Chitauri Invasion–one of the wars between humans and extraterrestrials.
In 2016, Strange was recognized as a top neurosurgeon. He performed yet another surgery that enhanced his ego at New York’s Metro-General Hospital, where he successfully removed an intact bullet hardened with poison in a patient.
As he was driving to an American Neurological Association dinner that night, though, Strange crashed his sports car into another vehicle. His hands were crushed by the accident.
Strange underwent an eleven-hour surgery that saved his life, but his hands were lost to nerve damage. He was probably in his mid-20s at this point and he would never be that renowned surgeon again.
How Old Is Doctor Strange in the First Movie?
But Strange did become a superhero in the first movie, with events occurring in 2016. After pursuing numerous experimental medical treatments for his hands, Strange went to Nepal to find Kamar-Taj, home of the Masters of the Mystic Arts–sorcerers who seek to protect Earth from extradimensional threats.
Karl Mordo, a former Master of the Mystic Arts and student of the Ancient One, took Strange to Kamar-Taj. The Ancient One was the top sorcerer there and decided to train Strange in magical arts.
His first lesson was about how the Masters take power from other dimensions of the Multiverse to change reality.
We could estimate that all of this happened in about one year, so Strange has not aged much. His training also occurs quickly over the course of about nine months.
So, if we follow the comic background, Strange would be in his late 20s when he performed his first experiment with mystical powers, making an apple grow and rot away.
He gained that power from the Eye of Agamotto, named after the first Sorcerer Supreme, which initially held the Time Stone. Through the Eye, Strange found he could control time and alter reality.
Soon afterward, he fought Dormammu, an interdimensional being from the Dark Dimension who threatened the Earth. Strange was able to create a time loop that trapped Dormammu and him in a recurring moment where Dormammu killed Strange.
Realizing this event would continue forever, Dormammu agreed to abandon Earth if Strange stopped the maddening loop.
By this defining moment, Strange would probably be age 30. However, the character looks older than that on screen.
How Old Is Doctor Strange in Ragnarok, Infinity War, and Endgame?
The main reason for the age discrepancy from the comics to the movie is the selection of Benedict Cumberbatch to play Doctor Strange. In 2016, the actor was 39.
Cumberbatch gives the character prestige and screen presence but also shifts the age scale by roughly ten years.
Yet, other factors also complicate the age of Doctor Strange. After the Doctor Strange movie, the next time we see this character is in Thor: Ragnarok, which came out in 2017.
In this film, Strange now has a deeper knowledge of magic and spell-casting after about two or three years of further training.
So, with comic background in mind, Strange would now be in his early 30s and the actor in his early 40s. However, other commentaries about this film say that Strange has only spent a few months in his new superhero role.
So, Strange could be about the same age as in the first movie, and we could remain with our 10 year difference between the character’s age and the actor’s age.
In 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, the movie starts right where Ragnarok has ended. The film takes place over the course of about two days, so Strange does not age much.
Although some fans think that peering into infinite realities can make you age, others disagree and think he stays the same age.
By the time of this Marvel movie, Strange has become a central character in the Avengers story. He even has greater weight than the other Avengers in determining the fate of the universe, especially because he surrenders the Time Stone to Thanos.
Doctor Strange does not have much of a showing in Avengers: Endgame until later in the movie. That’s because he lost his life to Thanos’ Snap. During that Snap, also known as the Blip, Strange spent about five years in non-existence.
So we could conclude he gets older by five years and is now in his mid-30s or so, or mid-40s by movie standards.
Yet, the Avengers devise the Time Heist to recover the Infinity Stones and arrange for a final battle with Thanos in an alternate timeline. Those, like Strange, who return from non-existence are not aware of or affected by the shift in five years.
Hence, the Doctor could be considered the same age he was at the time of Ragnarok to Infinity War.
Yet again, the Battle of Earth in Endgame does take place in 2023 and everyone who survived would have experienced that five years. So, it may be better to say that Doctor Strange is in his late 40s by movie count and late 30s by comic count.
Doctor Strange in No Way Home and The Multiverse of Madness
In the Spider-Man movie No Way Home, we encounter Doctor Strange again. The year is 2024 when he engages in battle with Spider-Man and uses a spell to conceal Peter Parker’s identity.
This is, of course, a year after Endgame, so Strange is pushing the limits of the 40s to 30s spectrum.
The Multiverse of Madness, released in 2022, is the sequel to Endgame and is estimated to occur somewhere between 2024 and 2025. This makes sense since the final battle with Thanos happened in 2023. As with the other movies, Strange progresses in time usually in one-to-two-year intervals.
Doctor Strange’s Age in the MCU Timeline
Doctor Strange also travels through time. If we factored in the effects of space travel and time dilation, we would be looking at a different scenario here, with a younger Strange.
To keep on a more realistic level, though, we have arrived at an age of about 30 for the first Doctor Strange movie when we factor in the comic background. If we include the actor’s age, it goes up to about 40.
Subsequent movies, keeping out traveling through space and time, push Strange up through his 30s. By the time of The Multiverse of Madness, Strange has entered his 40s by both of our measures.
Todd Wahlstrom is a creative and analytical freelance writer and life-long Star Wars fan who has expanded into writing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He has written about recent shows such as The Mandalorian and Andor and classic topics like Darth Vader, the Jedi, and Boba Fett. His recent articles include the MCU’s Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. Todd is the author of a non-fiction book, holds a Ph.D. in history, and enjoys hiking, running, and reading about science.