MCU hasn’t done a great job satisfying its fans, at least with the newest Spider-Man sequel, No Way Home, because they are already flooding the Internet with their speculation over the next Strange movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Will they see Hugh Jackman as Wolverine? Does Sam Raimi’s frequent collaborator Bruce Campbell show up as Ash, or even Mysterio’s variant (the character he was about to play in Spider-Man 4, which was canceled by Sony)?
An official trailer for the Doctor Strange sequel has just been released, but it
seems it didn’t give any answer but only raised more questions. It appears that the events of this movie happen right after WandaVision, which concluded with Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) retreating into isolation to study the ancient book of spell, Darkhold. It seems that she might be a villain due to the magical power that the book grants her. Moreover, she is not the only magician facing Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). A character from Marvel’s What If?, Evil Doctor Strange, shows up at the end of the trailer with a cunning smirk.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, there have been “significant” reshoots for the movie, which took six weeks with six days a week, in Los Angeles. The Strange sequel will include both “additional photography’ and “reshoots.” It is emphasized by the magazine that Sam Raimi will still be the movie’s director while Michael Waldron works as the writer of the project. Two anonymous sources presumably didn’t consider the shoots such a great deal. One shoot said “Even while in the middle of production, Marvel is scheduling you for more shooting,” and the other reports “We’ve had bigger reshoots on other MCU movies.” However, other sources have started to raise questions about the length of the new shoot. “They’re here until the end of the year. That’s like a whole other movie,” one said.
The reasons behind Sam Raimi directing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness were revealed in a recent candid interview, in which he reflected that “it just happened”:
"I didn't know that I could face it again because it was so awful, having been the director of Spider-Man 3. The Internet was getting revved up and people disliked that movie and they sure let me know about it. So, it was difficult to take back on. But then, I found out that there was an opening on Doctor Strange 2. My agent called me and said, 'They're looking for a director at Marvel for this movie and your name came up. Would you be interested?' And I thought, 'I wonder if I could still do it.' They're really demanding, those types of pictures. And I felt, 'Well, that's reason enough.' I've always really liked the character of Doctor Strange. He was not my favorite, but he was right up there with the favorites. I loved the first movie, I thought [director] Scott Derrickson did a wonderful job, an incredible job. So, I said, 'Yeah.' They left the character in a great place. I didn't think I would be doing another superhero movie. It just happened."
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is set to hit the box office on May 6, 2022. You can check out the trailer below:
