The man. The myth. The legend. The Cumberbatch.

The next Benedict Cumberbatch: 11 quirky, overlooked Hollywood crushes

UPDATED FEBRUARY 5, 2019 10:02 AM ESTFEB 5, 2019, 10:02 AM EST

The man. The myth. The legend. The Cumberbatch.

By superficial standards, Benedict Cumberbatch should not be a Hollywood sex symbol: He lacks a George Clooney-symmetrical face, yet his quirky visage conveys intelligence, masculinity and intensity. He's a thinking person's leading man. With a One Direction-level fan base.

"I've known Ben for 15 years, and yesterday was the first time I realized that he’s like a Beatle," Cumberbatch co-star Matthew Goode recently told New York magazine following the Toronto Film Festival premiere of their acclaimed new film The Imitation Game.

Now that the unlikely heartthrob and former star of BBC's Sherlock has crossed over to full-fledged pop-culture icon, we posed the question: Who's the next Cumberbatch?

We've got some men in mind, Matthew Goode among them. Let's turn our attention to 11 overlooked actors who have what it takes to assume the mantle of Smoldering King of Quirk.

Click on the image below to see which men made the cut:

Matthew Goode, 36, certainly looks the part of a traditional heartthrob but his quirky-cool on-screen presence defies convention. The British actor stars opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in the buzzy new drama The Imitation Game and also steals scenery on the hit CBS series The Good Wife as an attorney who shares smoldering chemistry with Julianna Margulies' Alicia Florrick.