Earlier this month it was reported that Rachel “has been offered the female lead in Marvel’s upcoming Doctor Strange”. Rachel was asked about this during her press rounds for “Southpaw” and confirmed to Amy Kaufman from Los Angeles Times that “it’s still super-early days, and I don’t know where that’s gonna go, if it’s gonna go anywhere at all”. Over these past few days new reports have been published, most of them don’t report anything new other than the fact that Rachel confirmed the rumors herself, but a few new reports surfaced. First of all: Variety is now reporting that “sources tell Variety that McAdams is the choice to land the female lead”. Secondly, The Wrap reported Jeff Sneider revealed on twitter that Rachel has indeed an offer. Finally – and this is probably the most interesting part – Kaufman, who interviewed Rachel for the LA Times, now also released Rachel’s full statement:

“That’s sort of super early days and I don’t know where that’s gonna go, if it’s gonna go anywhere at all. I’m certainly not a comic book snob. I really enjoy them and reading them, I think the Doctor Strange franchise is really interesting and Benedict is amazing. And I love graphic novels. I love that they are coming to light. I always wanted to make ‘Black Orchid.’ It’s a tough one But the fact that Doctor Strange is happening makes me think there’s hope for more Neil Geiman out there.”

Fun fact #1: This is not the first time Rachel talked about Neil Gaiman’s Black Orchid (who is not part of the Marvel universe) back in 2008 she also expressed her interest. Back then she told the reporter: “She’s [Black Orchid] a superhero that’s a flower. I don’t know if that would work or the audiences would be interested in that, but she was kind of cool. I would love to play a female superhero. I do love graphic novels and I just think it’s just an exciting thing happening. Some of them are so beautiful.”

Fun fact #2: After the 2010 Oscars, Neil Gaiman wrote a column about inspecting Rachel’s beautiful dress for footprints. You can find it at our anecdotes information page, it’s definitely a fun read!

Since it’s such an anticipated project there have been many speculations about what role Rachel has been offered, including reports by ComingSoon.net and CinemaBlend.com. To sum-up: There seems to be truth to the reports of Marvel offering Rachel the female lead opposite “Benedict Cumberbatch” but nothing is officially yet and we think this full statement/quote of Rachel shows she is a comic-book/graphic novel fan herself.

Update – July 30: Turns out Neil Gaiman thinks Rachel as Black Orchid is a “brilliant idea” and also says “I’d watch it! She’s a great actress” (via #1 + #2).