Comedy is a meritocracy. If you are funny, you are there. If you are not, you are out.

I don't know that a movie like Doctor Strange couldn't have been the second or third film we made. I don't think we're doing anything in that requires past viewing, as opposed to Civil War which we wouldn't have done as the first or second movie because so much of that film is based on the pre-existing relationships between the characters.

The more films we make the more we get to deal with those pre-existing relationships. But when it comes to a movie like Ant-Man or Guardians or certainly Doctor Strange, it's just bringing to life stuff that's already been there in the comics and we finally get a chance to do it on the big screen.

The only thing I'll say, and I'm sure everyone says this, is stick with it. I'm not shy about telling people about the fact that my dream was to go to USC film school when I was growing up in New Jersey. I got rejected five times. You just keep going, keep going, keep going.

I don't think it's a mistake to put every great idea into the first movie, because I've always said there won't be a second movie if you go 'we'll hold back these ideas for another one.

Being authentic in the way you'll see today on the sets [of Doctor Strange] that Charles Wood has designed for us, being authentic in filming, as we did for the first week on production on this in Nepal and in Kathmandu. It was important to us to make it feel like these were real locations and real things.

When we bring the filmmaker, we bring somebody to help us elevate the material with those things, to help us do something different with all of those resources at their disposal.

I think those with knowledge of the comics may expect things that will not be happening in the movies. Those who don't know what has happened in the comics will be shocked at what we do.

I think [Doctor Strange] it is - it does tap into a supernatural type of genre that is not horror.

Filmmakers are anxious about what other people are working on.

I do think we've looked at this film [Doctor Strange] not with any direct genre comparison but as a play on the supernatural genre. Certainly more so than we've done in the past, which is what makes his journey from person that doesn't wear a cape to person who does wear a cape - cloak, much more unique than we've seen in the past.

When you get into individual characters certainly there's been things that have been updated .

I do think that as I said before the canvas of action sequences and the way in which the sequences unfurl will be very unique and will be different than any movie we've made before, and that's what makes it interesting, what makes it [Doctor Strange] special, and what makes it worth pursuing, and worth bringing to life for the first time.

The super-powered girlfriend for [Doctor] Strange wasn't in the first issue. There's a lot of backstory required for her, which is one of the reason we didn't go that way. There's so much to set up in this. I think it's always a huge mistake when you throw the kitchen sink and everything in the first movie.

Most obviously it [Doctor Strange] will introduce a new character who will be in play in the universe, but once you have gotten an audience to buy into a new concept then it's fun to keep, to play-off, or spin-off that concept down the line.

Sometimes you can have a great scene but it just doesn't need to be in the movie. If it's not progressing the plot, not progressing the story, not adding to the momentum, or if it's not purposefully serving a breath - it has got to go.

We have audiences that seem to be embracing whether they've heard of the characters or not.