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Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Adam Lenhardt

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Title: Doctor Strange 2

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action

Director: Scott Derrickson

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams

Release: 2021-05-31

Plot: The sequel to Doctor Strange (2016).
 

Josh Steinberg

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The film will star Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen and serve as a direct sequel to the "WandaVision" series on Disney+.

That to me is the most exciting part of this announcement. I’ve long been interested in a franchise that told a continuing story that moved between the small screen and big screen and at last we have confirmation that that is finally happening.
 

Jake Lipson

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I'm going to say again what I've said before.

I don't have any problem with the idea of the Disney+ series existing and being canon in the MCU. I'm very excited to see them and I hope they are great. It will also be rewarding for the fans who do follow the shows to be able to see them progress the stories for the next film.

However, I also feel very strongly that a viewer who is going to see the film should not be required to subscribe to Disney+ and watch a six-hour or whatever miniseries in order to understand what's going on in the movie. I think it's reasonable to expect that if you buy a ticket to the movie, you're going to get a story with a beginning, middle and end that makes sense. It will be incumbent upon the filmmakers to make sure that it works on one level for the fans who watched the Disney+ show but does not completely alienate more casual moviegoers who are just interested in turning up to the latest big screen Marvel movie.
 

Sean Bryan

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I'm going to say again what I've said before.

I don't have any problem with the idea of the Disney+ series existing and being canon in the MCU. I'm very excited to see them and I hope they are great. It will also be rewarding for the fans who do follow the shows to be able to see them progress the stories for the next film.

However, I also feel very strongly that a viewer who is going to see the film should not be required to subscribe to Disney+ and watch a six-hour or whatever miniseries in order to understand what's going on in the movie. I think it's reasonable to expect that if you buy a ticket to the movie, you're going to get a story with a beginning, middle and end that makes sense. It will be incumbent upon the filmmakers to make sure that it works on one level for the fans who watched the Disney+ show but does not completely alienate more casual moviegoers who are just interested in turning up to the latest big screen Marvel movie.

I’d like to think that they’ll do it in a way that allow the movie to both follow up on the story from WandaVision and also work well if you haven’t see it.

You can look at any number of movies where significant “stuff” happens between movies that we never actually see. Cap and his team’s adventures between Civil War and Infinity War, Banner merging himself with Hulk between Infinity War and Endgame, etc... You just need the proper amount of backstory exposition that is relevant to the new story (whether or not that stuff was ever actually portrayed somewhere else) and then you continue with the new story you are telling. In this case, viewers of the Disney+ series would have less (or no) blanks so to fill in but the new story should still work whether or not you’ve seen the backstory.
 

Sean Bryan

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Anyway this can be swapped out with the movie poster thumbnail for this thread?

upload_2019-7-21_2-10-20.jpeg
 

Adam Lenhardt

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Scott Derrickson departs due to "creative differences". He will remain credited as an executive producer.

The first Doctor Strange was among my least favorite of the MCU movies, so I'm not heartbroken about this. But I hope he's not leaving because Marvel wanted to play it safer.
 

Jake Lipson

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This is a surprise. Especially since he is retaining an executive producer credit, I doubt we'll find out much more about what caused this split.

I liked the first Doctor Strange film and thought Derrickson did a good job with it, but with respect to him and his work he didn't make it so distinctive that I couldn't imagine someone else directing a sequel. This is not a James Gunn/Ryan Coogler kind of situation where the franchise clearly belongs in the hands of one filmmaker.

The sequel should become a highly sought-after job now that he is stepping away, so I doubt Marvel will have much problem finding someone willing to do this one on short notice.

Derrickson or Feige or both (I don't remember which) had said earlier that the movie was going to lean into horror elements. I generally avoid horror movies because of my extreme startle reflex and aversion to sudden loud noises/jump scares. I respect Marvel's right to make whatever kind of movie they want to make, but I also want to be able to see this one without being uncomfortable. I wouldn't hate it if the new director comes in and decides not to proceed with the horror elements. Isn't Derickson a horror director in general? The original Doctor Strange is the only film of his that I've seen. If he wanted to go into a more overtly horror direction than Kevin Feige and Marvel/Disney did, that could explain the creative difference. To be clear, that's all just speculation on my part -- I certainly don't know anything more than anyone else here -- but that was my immediate thought when I read this news.
 
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Josh Steinberg

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If it was another studio I might agree, but I think the MCU is different. Every Marvel film is first and foremost a Marvel film, and then whatever genre they explore is a secondary aesthetic. People say that Guardians of the Galaxy was such a big hit because it was unlike anything ever done before, but I don’t think that’s it at all - I think it was a big hit precisely because it was very much like every previous Marvel film, with just a little different window dressing. The main characters, the way they interact, the somewhat sarcastic but never too sarcastic sense of humor, those all seem consistent across the board with Marvel. The way Black Widow and Captain America banter in “Winter Soldier” wouldn’t be out of place with most other characters in most other films.

So when they say that this is going for “gothic horror,” I don’t doubt it, but it’ll first and foremost be a Marvel film featuring Doctor Strange. Expect humor and sarcasm and all the other constants that are part of visiting the MCU. It won’t be a straight up horror film.
 

TravisR

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Isn't Derickson a horror director in general?
You definitely don't want to see it but Sinister is really good.

As for horror and super heroes, there was alot of the 1970's super hero comic books that had a heavy horror influence. Blade, Morbius, Ghost Rider, Tomb Of Dracula, Man-Thing, Werewolf By Night and even Moon Knight. The way Marvel is going through characters, I wouldn't be surprised to see Moon Knight and Morbius pop up onscreen soon.
 

Malcolm R

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I wouldn't be surprised to see Moon Knight and Morbius pop up onscreen soon.
Morbius has already finished shooting and is released in theaters July 31, 2020. Stars Jared Leto.

Moon Knight is being discussed as a possible Disney+ series.
 

Jake Lipson

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Morbius has already finished shooting and is released in theaters July 31, 2020. Stars Jared Leto.

Yes -- and that's a Sony property in the same universe as Venom. Because it's not the MCU, I feel no obligation to watch that. Doctor Strange I can't skip, so I hope if they're going to do horror, the jump scares are kept to a minimum so I can still enjoy it.
 

Malcolm R

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Yes -- and that's a Sony property in the same universe as Venom. Because it's not the MCU, I feel no obligation to watch that. Doctor Strange I can't skip, so I hope if they're going to do horror, the jump scares are kept to a minimum so I can still enjoy it.
Eh, I enjoyed Venom. I'll give Morbius a look see.
 

Jake Lipson

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It's kind of hard to guess without knowing what kind of movie Marvel envisions, but I wonder who they'll get to direct this now that Derrickson is out.

Matt Shankman is currently directing WandaVision for them. If they like what he is doing there and believe he can direct a feature film project, it might make sense to offer him the Strange job. Because we know WandaVision leads directly into Strange, that would make a seamless transition. I'm not sure how far along they are with shooting the show, but it's only six episodes, so it can't be too much longer if they are going to premiere it in 2020 as Disney+ has already announced. The only issue here would be that he hasn't directed a feature film before, but he has tons of experience directing TV.
 

Bryan^H

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I'm waiting patiently for Marvel to tackle Conan the Barbarian. If done properly the film would be fresh, successful, and different as GOTG was for Marvel years ago.

And I would also like to see my near mint first issue triple in value, so there's that.
 

Sam Favate

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Surprised to see this happen, but it wouldn't be the first Marvel film to change hands (Ant-Man, Thor 2) and I think it will turn out fine.

Recently, Feige addressed the "horror" aspects of this movie and said he envisioned it like films such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or Gremlins, not a straight up horror movie. Perhaps Derrickson saw things differently and that's part of the creative dispute.

I also get what Derrickson is saying about release dates being bad for art (and creativity) but we have to realize that this is a business first. Disney counts on these movies to be on schedule. It's not fair to make them the bad guy because their business model isn't conducive to his artistic timetable. Artists tend to take too long lingering on a project and the Doctor Strange sequel is already due 4 1/2 years after the first film, which is quite a long time for a sequel.

BTW, the movie is written by a woman named Jade Halley Bartlett. As far as I can tell, it's one of her first writing credits. She wrote a film called Miller's Girl, which topped the Black List a few years ago.

Feige's comments:

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a horror film, but it is, as Scott Derrickson — our director — has pitched it, a big MCU film with scary sequences in it. When I was a kid in the ‘80s, Spielberg did an amazing job [doing that]. There are horrifying sequences in Raiders [of the Lost Ark] that I would, as a little kid, [cover my eyes] when their faces melted. Or Temple of Doom, of course, or Gremlins or Poltergeist. These are the movies that invented the PG-13 rating, by the way — they were PG and they were like, ‘We need another [rating].’ But that’s fun, it’s fun to be scared in that way and not a horrific, torturous way, but in a way that is legitimately scary because Scott Derrickson’s quite good at that. But scary in the service of an exhilarating emotion.”

https://www.slashfilm.com/doctor-strange-horror-influences-for-the-multiverse-of-madness/
 
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Malcolm R

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I also get what Derrickson is saying about release dates being bad for art (and creativity) but we have to realize that this is a business first. Disney counts on these movies to be on schedule. It's not fair to make them the bad guy because their business model isn't conducive to his artistic timetable. Artists tend to take too long lingering on a project and the Doctor Strange sequel is already due 4 1/2 years after the first film, which is quite a long time for a sequel.
Yep, these people need to understand that they're largely director-for-hire on these sorts of films. They just need to get in, get out, and deliver the film on schedule as they were hired to do.

If they're successful at that process, that's when they can sometimes transfer that good feeling into studio support of one of their personal passion projects where they can call the shots and decide the schedule.
 
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