Derrickson chose Nepal as a location to feature an " Eastern city " that would not be familiar to most audiences . After scouting and deciding on locations in the country , many of those areas were destroyed by the April 2015 Nepal earthquake . Rather than choosing another country , Derrickson and Cumberbatch felt that bringing attention and tourism to Nepal following the event " was all the more reason to shoot there " . Cumberbatch said that shooting in Nepal was " absolutely vital to this film , I think not least because it 's so based in something that is exotic . It was a magical way to start the shoot . It 's important to a film like this — which has a profound gearshift into a spiritual and otherworldly dimension — that the portal for that be in a place that actually happens in itself to be incredibly spiritual and marvelous . " The eventual filming locations around the Kathmandu Valley included the Pashupatinath and Swayambhunath Temples ; Thamel and New Road in Kathmandu ; and the Patan Durbar Square in Patan
April 2015 Nepal earthquake
April 2015 Nepal earthquake
Doctor Strange (2016 film)