In 2019, Marvel had to revise its plans in a hurry. Scott Derrickson, who had been working for several years on the second installment of Stephen Strange's adventures, had just packed his bags. The director withdrew from the project after creative differences, the details of which remained under wraps. A few months after announcing his departure, Marvel announced that it had pulled off a major coup.
The House of Ideas secured the services of a director with a solid reputation among superhero fans and horror aficionados alike: Sam Raimi. For his first film to combine these two inspirations, Kevin Feige's company seems to have found the ideal director. The father of Evil Dead and the first Spider-Man trilogy is tackling it, while exploring the multiverse, which was still far from having revealed all its secrets. In front of his camera, it is therefore a new adventure of Doctor Strange that is immortalized. When America Chavez asks for his help to escape the Scarlet Witch, Stephen embarks on a frantic race through multiple worlds and universes. Officially, this is the first time that Raimi has taken on the comic book hero born in 1963. Except that... he had already mentioned him in the early 2000s.
Sam Raimi has a lot of ideas
In 2004, Sam Raimi, David Koepp and Alfred Gough continued the adventures of Peter Parker in the cinema with a story evolving around the famous Doctor Octopus. The latter has developed an energy source as powerful as it is infinite. “The power of the sun in the palm of my hand”, the scientist is nevertheless the victim of an accident which affects the mechanical device which allows him to remotely manipulate his creation. He is now a prisoner of his robotic tentacles and is determined to improve them.
In the film, we see a scene where the Daily Bugle editorial team is looking for a nickname for this new villain. Several pseudonyms are thrown around, including one that comic book fans were already very familiar with at the time. Ted Hoffman, a regular journalist, suggests the name Doctor Strange, but J. Jonah Jameson isn't particularly keen on the idea, arguing that the nickname is already taken. While he doesn't specify the circumstances, Spider-Man 2 already confirmed that Doctor Strange was operating on the streets of New York. This idea will never be revisited. It was just a nod, not a promise for him to dedicate a film to the magician who would later be played by Benedict Cumberbatch.
Note that it is the brother of director Ted Raimi who delivers the line. It is one of the many cameos in the trilogy, which also features Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead), Joe Manganiello, Octavia Spencer, Randy Savage and Stan Lee.
Return to grace for Raimi
After Spider-Man 3 and its poor critical reception, Sam Raimi promised himself that he would not do it again. The director was very affected by the criticism leveled at the final installment of Peter Parker's adventures in front of his camera. However, at the end of the 2010s, the director learned that Marvel was actively seeking a new director for Doctor Strange 2. His name was mentioned numerous times by the House of Ideas, enough to get him thinking. He confided to People that it was the demands of this kind of proposal that convinced him to return. And it's clear that it is undoubtedly one of the best MCU films in the franchise's drought.
For now, the director has no official projects in the pipeline. His return to the MCU is far from assured. While Doctor Strange is expected to play a significant role in the upcoming Avengers films, no third film is officially in development. Kevin Feige is keeping a lid on what the future holds for his franchise after the release of Secret Wars in 2027.
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