20 facts you might not know about 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'

In the wake of Doctor Strange's release, director Scott Derrickson said he would like to return to direct a sequel that would allow him to make a more “visceral” film. A couple of years later, Derrickson officially signed on to direct the sequel with a potential release date of May 2021.

At Comic-Con in 2019, Kevin Feige and Derrickson announced that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was coming, with a May 2021 target date. That announcement came in July 2019. In October 2019, Jade Halley Bartlett was announced as the screenwriter for the movie. Yes, the film had a title and a release date before it had a screenwriter.

Derrickson came from a horror background, and he wanted to explore the horror elements that existed in Doctor Strange’s comic book storylines over the years. However, Feige would step up to clarify that the film would not be a horror movie, but a “big MCU film with scary sequences,” perhaps to avoid turning off a larger audience.

Feige also announced that Marvel’s first Disney+ show, WandaVision, would directly set up Multiverse of Madness. At one point, Doctor Strange was supposed to show up in that show, but that didn’t end up happening. Meanwhile, Loki introduced the multiverse to the MCU, and Loki the character was supposed to pop up in Multiverse of Madness, but that also did not end up happening.

Creative differences, alleged to be about just how much “horror” the movie would have, led to Derrickson dropping out of directing Multiverse of Madness. Instead, he moved on to direct the straight-up horror film The Black Phone, which he had wanted to do. Derrickson’s ideas for the movie had not been put into a screenplay draft yet, so there was no concern that any script would be derivative of his work and concepts.

Bartlett’s script was cast aside when Derrickson left. Instead, Michael Waldron was hired to revamp the project. He had been the head writer on Loki, making him a steady Marvel hand with experience in the multiverse to boot.

With Derrickson out, Sam Raimi was approached to direct. He had horror bona fides, making his name with the Evil Dead films. Then, he directed the first Spider-Man trilogy, making him a legend in the world of comic-book movies. Due to the reception of Spider-Man 3, he was hesitant to return to the world of superheroes.

Eventually, Raimi put his worries aside. The announcement he was directing a new film was met with much fanfare. Raimi had not directed a film since Oz the Great and Powerful, a misfire from 2013.

The clock was ticking. When Waldron and Raimi signed on, Waldron had three weeks to write a new script. He called this “almost impossible,” and Raimi said he felt “very rushed and panicked” about how soon he was expected to start. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. All the Marvel films were pushed on the calendar, which gave Waldron and Raimi a chance to revamp the movie from scratch.

Originally, Multiverse of Madness was going to be released before Spider-Man: No Way Home and would have thus been the introduction to the multiverse in the MCU films. Then, Marvel moved the schedule around, and No Way Home was suddenly due first. That meant everything about introducing the multiverse in Waldron’s script had to be changed, leading to a lot of changes to both films.

Wanda, now the Scarlet Witch, was always going to be in Multiverse of Madness . It’s Waldron who decided to make her the villain of the film. Not wanting another movie to have the “fun” of having Wanda as the villain, Waldron wrote her that way from the beginning. Elizabeth Olsen was unsure about playing the villain at first but came to embrace the ability to show a new side of the character.

When Waldron and Raimi took over, it was reported that Rachel McAdams’ Christine Palmer was not going to be in the movie, which ran counter to the original announcements. In the end, that did not prove accurate. Palmer ended up in the first, and in multiple universes, at that.

Michael Stuhlbarg shows up for one scene in Multiverse of Madness, which seemed odd. However, that wasn’t the original intention. Stuhlbarg was supposed to play an Earth-838 version of Dr. West, who ended up killed with his head being found. Then, Stuhlbarg had scheduling conflicts, and that didn’t happen.

Raimi and actor Bruce Campbell were friends growing up, and Campbell starred as Ash in the Evil Dead films. Raimi frequently has Campbell show up in cameos in his films. Indeed, Campbell, who had previously played three different roles in Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, plays the iconic Pizza Poppa in Multiverse of Madness.

The idea of John Krasinski being cast as Reed Richards is quite popular on the internet. Sure enough, Krasinski shows up as the Fantastic Four member — one of the Illuminati in the multiverse. Of course, he is pretty much immediately killed, feeling like a nod to the Marvel fans and maybe a way to mess with them.

Initially, the plan was for Daniel Craig to play Balder the Brave as a member of the Illuminati. However, the film was shot at a time when COVID-19 was rampant. Craig did not want to risk catching COVID and passing it on to his family for a one-day cameo. Thus, they pivoted to Krasinski.

Filming Multiverse of Madness was chaotic due to COVID-19, which shut down shooting on several occasions. Krasinski, for example, filmed entirely during reshoots. Also, he and Elizabeth Olsen never met. She worked with a stand-in, and Krasinski was spliced in during post-production.

Gargantos, the monster from the beginning of Multiverse of Madness, is based on a villain from Doctor Strange comics, but in those comics, it is known as Shuma-Gorath. However, a Norwegian video game company owns the rights to that name, hence the name change. The eye of Gargantos was also modeled from Olsen’s eye, a clue to her being the film’s antagonist.

Though Multiverse of Madness was released during a time when COVID-19 was still a concern, it was not concerning enough to keep it from being a massive success. The film brought in $454.4 million worldwide on its first weekend, the ninth-biggest opening of all time. Middling reviews tamped the numbers down a bit, but the film still made $411.3 million domestically and $955.8 million worldwide, a significant increase on Doctor Strange.

There were thoughts of having the sorceress character Clea be a part of the story, but Waldron decided to hold off and let Strange’s dynamic with Palmer take center stage. Clea does show up during the mid-credits scene, though she is not called by her name during the film. Clea is played by Charlize Theron, which makes it pretty safe to say there are plans for another film featuring Doctor Strange in the works.