This is not a drill: Benedict Cumberbatch has jumped on board the next Spider-Man adventure.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, he's signed up to reprise his M.C.U. role as Doctor Strange in the third Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland.

Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange will fulfill the older mentoring role to Holland's young webslinger, following in the footsteps of Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man in 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming and Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in last year's Spider-Man: Far from Home. Other than this, though, plot details are being kept tightly under wraps in the usual M.C.U. fashion.

Like the first two Spidey movies starring Holland, the new installment is being directed by Jon Watts. It's currently scheduled to hit theaters on December 17, 2021, but this seems likely to change given the domino effect that Covid-19 has had in shunting back blockbuster release dates.

Cumberbatch and Holland previously appeared together in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, which marked the older actor's second appearance as Doctor Strange. He's also due to reprise his M.C.U. role in a sequel to 2016's standalone movie Doctor Strange, which grossed a healthy $677.7 million worldwide.

In the meantime, you can catch him in the spy movie The Courier, which opens in the U.S. October 16, and enjoy this vintage clip of him channeling Beyoncé on The Graham Norton Show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_Hn7K7F3-Q

Are you excited to see Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Holland together again?