Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has been without a director for just about a month, with the production expected to start rolling in May. That is, until Wednesday, when it was reported that the original Spider-Man trilogy’s Sam Raimi is in talks to take over Scott Derrickson’s role.
The Phase Four Marvel project lost its original director due to “creative differences,” but Scott Derrickson is still on board for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as an executive producer. Now, he has taken to Twitter to share his support for Sam Raimi. Check it out:
It looks like there are two thumbs all the way up from Scott Derrickson. He speaks from personal experience of having worked wth Sam Raimi and called him one of “nicest” people he’s come across in Hollywood. Derrickson went on to call Raimi a “living legend” too. If this is really happening, here’s a vote of confidence from the director of 2016’s Doctor Strange.
When the news broke of Sam Raimi’s attachment to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, many movie fans were instantly struck with the positive potential of the choice. Although Raimi hasn’t focused on directing in seven years, in his glory days, he helped not only kickstart the blockbuster superhero genre with the Spider-Man movies, but his roots lie in horror.
When Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was first announced last summer at San Diego Comic-Con, Scott Derrickson described it as the MCU’s first horror movie. But then, its leanings into the “gothic” and “horrific” seemed to be scaling back when Kevin Feige said it’s more of a big MCU movie with “scary sequences.” Does this mean Marvel taking a step back on the whole horror concept?
Sam Raimi’s resume does create a potentially good balance for the project, since he’s had a ton of experience with Marvel movies and horror genres. The director even teased the character of Doctor Strange’s existence in his Marvel “universe” of sorts back in 2004's Spider-Man 2.
However, the last movie Sam Raimi helmed was 2013's Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful. The movie did alright commercially, but it’s one of those blockbusters the studio never went back to and most audiences have forgotten about years later. These points aside, Scott Derrickson has come out to show support for Sam Raimi, and that could be a great step forward for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The Doctor Strange sequel is set to come out on May 7, 2021, during a particularly busy year for the MCU. It will be the second of four movies for the universe, following Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings in February, and before the untitled Spider-Man sequel and Thor: Love and Thunder.
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