04/04/2016 AT 10:50 AM EDT  Presto! And, just like that,  materialized out of nowhere as his character in  to shock unwitting fans at a  The British actor, who is in the midst of filming the supernatural superhero tale in Manhattan,  Sunday to Midtown shop JHU Comic Books, where gawkers had to do a double-take to make sure that this was, indeed, an authentic celebrity conjuring.  Cumberbatch, in full Doctor Strange regalia, happened to be filming nearby and popped into the shop, where he posed with store staffers and even mugged it up with  from the store, the actor, 39, can be seen  trailed by a phalanx of onlookers, and he later moseys up to the cashier while sporting bloody makeup by his left eyebrow. Incredulous shoppers then try to nondescriptly eyeball the thesp, with one fellow quickly snapping a pic.  "There were only about five or six people in the store, but everyone went crazy when they saw him," store manager Rene Rosa told the  "One lady screamed at her boyfriend, 'Did you see what just happened?' But he was in the back looking at comics, not paying attention."  Cumberbatch has been ping-ponging around town while filming the mystical movie, in which he plays a surgeon-turned-sorcerer and which is based on the cult Marvel comic series.  "I'm still in the infancy of learning all that," Cumberbatch told  in December about nailing down his character's gestures and nuances. "It was like, okay, I've got to keep throwing these poses, these spells, these rune-casting things, everything he does physically. I'm thinking, there's going to be a huge amount of speculation and intrigue over the positioning of  finger as opposed to it being  . And I'm still working on that."  , which also stars Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Rachel McAdams, casts its spell on theaters Nov. 4.
Benedict Cumberbatch shocked shoppers when he nonchalantly popped into a comic book store in full Doctor Strange regalia