In a strange twist (pun intended), there’s been a commensurate shakeup in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson will not return to helm the highly-anticipated sequel.
After the original Doctor Strange burst onto the scene in 2016 and grossed over $677 million at the box office, a lot of eyes were on Benedict Cumberbatch to reprise the role and see where the franchise was heading. After two stellar appearances in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, it seemed like there were a lot of exciting possibilities of where the Sorcerer Supreme would go from here.
Well wherever Doctor Strange is going, director Scott Derrickson won’t be going with him. Variety reports that the filmmaker dropped out from helming the doctor’s sequel In The Multiverse Of Madness after sharing creative differences with Marvel Studios, though he will still remain on the project as an executive producer.
“Marvel Studios and Scott Derrickson have amicably parted ways on ‘Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness’ due to creative differences,” Marvel said in a statement to Variety. “We remain grateful to Scott for his contributions to the MCU.”
As far as creative differences go, I’m relatively confident at what the biggest disagreement was: the fact that Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness was supposed to be a horror movie rather than the usual Marvel superhero-fantasy romp. Derrickson previously stated that he wanted to bring the supervillain Nightmare into the sequel, an omnipresent being that feeds on people’s bad dreams. With Derrickson’s filmmaking roots based heavily in the horror genre (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister) there were tons of potential for which new directions he could have taken the character and the franchise. Sadly, Marvel and Disney are not really well known for being non-family-friendly. The falling out seemed almost inevitable. I’m just sad Derrickson won’t be able to direct Marvel’s first quote-unquote “horror movie” in the MCU.
That begs the question of what will happen to the sequel now? Well we know Elizabeth Olson is still set to reprise her role as the Scarlet Witch in the sequel, and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Baron Mordo is also anticipated to make an appearance. Other than that, everything else is up in the air. A lot of fans are throwing out the possibility of other horror filmmakers taking the reins, such as Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan, Insidious director James Wan, and Pan’s Labirynth director Guillermo Del Toro. Considering their past successes with comic book movies such as Blade II, Hellboy, and Aquaman, any one of these filmmakers would be perfect for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. It’s just a matter of whether Disney and Marvel want to go to those dark, opaque places those filmmakers have gone in the past.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness is currently scheduled for release on May 7, 2021.
– David Dunn
SOURCE: Variety, We Got This Covered
DAVID DUNN 