Benedict Cumberbatch looked completely unrecognizable as Uncle Nubar in the first trailer for Wes Anderson’s espionage black comedy The Phoenician Scheme, which dropped Monday.

Hair/make-up designer Heike Merker transformed the 48-year-old Englishman with slicked back grey hair, a burly beard, and bushy eyebrows for the character described as a ‘тιтan’ on a construction project by Korda Land CEO Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro).

‘One thing you’ll never know, because you can’t,’ Uncle Nubar said in the preview. ‘The truth.’

Benedict previously worked with the whimsical 55-year-old filmmaker on his Oscar-winning film, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More, which streamed on Netflix in 2023.

‘I feel like, “Why hasn’t this been happening for years and years?”‘ Cumberbatch gushed to Variety in January.

‘I just wish I could build a time machine and go back and work on all those other films with him.’

Benedict Cumberbatch looked completely unrecognizable as Uncle Nubar in the first trailer for Wes Anderson’s espionage black comedy The Phoenician Scheme, which dropped Monday

Another ‘тιтan’ in The Phoenician Scheme is played by the two-time Oscar nominee’s Avengers castmate Scarlett Johansson.

The 40-year-old Oscar nominee’s character is only known as ‘Cousin’ and politely thanks Zsa-zsa for offering her hand grenades.

Michael Cera, Mia Threapleton, Richard Ayoade, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Jeffrey Wright, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Imad Mardnli, Bill Murray, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe, and Ethan Hawke also appear in The Phoenician Scheme.

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This Thursday, the Cannes Film Festival is expected to announce the world premiere of the absurdist father-daughter flick after Wes debuted his prior films Moonrise Kingdom, The French Dispatch, and Asteroid City there.

The Phoenician Scheme hits limited US/UK theaters on May 30 with a wider US release on June 6.

Benedict is set to reprise his MCU role as neurosurgeon-turned-sorcerer Dr. Stephen Strange in Anthony and Joe Russo’s film Avengers: Doomsday already scheduled to hit US theaters May 1, 2026.

‘He’s quite central to where things might go,’ Cumberbatch told Variety.

‘He’s a very rich character to play. He’s a complex, contradictory, troubled human who’s got these extraordinary abilities, so there’s potent stuff to mess about with.’

The Emmy winner will also play Theo opposite Olivia Colman’s Ivy in The Roses, Jay Roach’s remake of Danny DeVito’s 1989 comedy War of the Roses, hitting US theaters August 29.

On the personal front, Benedict has three sons – Christopher, 9; Hal, 8; and Finn, 6 – from his decade-long marriage to theatre director Sophie Hunter, whom he first met on the 2009 set of Burlesque Fairytales.

Hair/make-up designer Heike Merker transformed the 48-year-old Englishman with slicked back grey hair, a burly beard, and bushy eyebrows for the character described as a ‘тιтan’ on a construction project by Korda Land CEO Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro)

‘One thing you’ll never know, because you can’t,’ Uncle Nubar said in the preview. ‘The truth’

Benedict previously worked with the whimsical 55-year-old filmmaker on his Oscar-winning film, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More, which streamed on Netflix in 2023 

Cumberbatch gushed to Variety in January: ‘I feel like, “Why hasn’t this been happening for years and years?” I just wish I could build a time machine and go back and work on all those other films with him’ (pictured January 25)

Another ‘тιтan’ in The Phoenician Scheme is played by the two-time Oscar nominee’s Avengers castmate Scarlett Johansson

The 40-year-old Oscar nominee’s character is only known as ‘Cousin’ and politely thanks Zsa-zsa for offering her hand grenades

Michael Cera (L), Mia Threapleton (2-R), Richard Ayoade (R), Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Jeffrey Wright, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Imad Mardnli, Bill Murray, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe, and Ethan Hawke also appear in The Phoenician Scheme

This Thursday, the Cannes Film Festival is expected to announce the world premiere of the absurdist father-daughter flick after Wes debuted his prior films Moonrise Kingdom, The French Dispatch, and Asteroid City there

The Phoenician Scheme hits limited US/UK theaters on May 30 with a wider US release on June 6

Benedict is set to reprise his MCU role as neurosurgeon-turned-sorcerer Dr. Stephen Strange in Anthony and Joe Russo’s film Avengers: Doomsday already scheduled to hit US theaters May 1, 2026 (pictured in 2022)