After two months of Sam Raimi reportedly being “in talks” to assume Scott Derrickson’s role as director on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the filmmaker behind Evil Dead and the Spider-Man trilogy just made it official this week. And what would be a Raimi project without his frequent collaborator, Bruce Campbell? That’s the exact question Evil Dead’s Ash is adding to the conversation with these words:
Huh. Surely, there must be SOME character to challenge the good Doctor…
Bruce Campbell took to Twitter to comment on the news that Sam Raimi is returning to direct another Marvel film after seven years away from helming feature films. The actor sounds ready to go and be a part of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. And considering the pair’s track record, chances are he might just make his way into the sequel in one way or another.
The collaborators worked together on Sam Raimi’s first directing project back in 1981, Evil Dead, and have been pretty much inseparable since then. After the Evil Dead trilogy, Bruce Campbell also had small, but memorable cameo roles in each of Raimi's Spider-Man films as the Ring Announcer when Spider-Man first gets his name, a “Snooty Usher” when Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker is attempting to see Mary Jane in a play in Spider-Man 2, and as a Maître d' during a failed proposal sequence in Spider-Man 3.
Bruce Campbell also made his way in Sam Raimi’s last blockbuster project, 2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful, and he was the star of STARZ’s Ash vs. Evil Dead for three seasons, which Raimi was an executive producer on. The filmmaker also recently said he is working on another Evil Dead with new talent behind the camera, and he said he’d like to do it with Campbell despite him being retired from the role.
The Ash vs. the Evil Dead actor sounds like he wants to play a villain in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but we’ll have to see how things shake out. He could make his way through another cameo-type appearance or perhaps find a larger role in the MCU sequel. Raimi took over the reigns on Doctor Strange 2 after Scott Derrickson decided to step away from the job. The director of 2016’s Doctor Strange is making it clear that he loves the pick for his replacement, and he's still attached to the sequel as an executive producer.
What’s exciting about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is it will take advantage of Sam Raimi’s experience with the superhero genre and his roots in horror. According to Kevin Feige, it will be a “big MCU film with scary sequences in it.” Following Scott Derrickson’s exit from the movie, it’s unclear if his description of it at San Diego Comic Con when the title was introduced is still part of the vision. He said he based its roots on the Doctor Strange comics that “dipped into the gothic and the horror and the horrific.”
Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is expected to hit theaters on November 5, 2021.
