Will Marvel Push Back Doctor Strange 2 Following Director's Departure?

Fans of Marvel Studios received a pretty unpleasant surprise on Thursday night, when the news [...]

Fans of Marvel Studios received a pretty unpleasant surprise on Thursday night, when the news broke that Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson would no longer be helming the 2021 sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Both Marvel and Derrickson said they parted ways amicably, citing creative differences in the direction of the Doctor Strange sequel. Whether this split was about Derrickson wanting to dive heavier into the horror aspects of the source material, as was revealed when the film was announced at SDCC last summer, or the two sides simply had different ideas for a specific character arc, no one really knows. But what is clear is that Marvel has a film set for release in a year and a half with no director on board to see it through production.

Variety's initial report of Derrickson's suggested that, despite the loss of its director, the Doctor Strange sequel is still on track to begin production in May and that a search to fill the position is already underway. This may play out exactly as suggested and the entire production goes smoothly. That's certainly a possibility, especially with Marvel's Kevin Feige involved. That said, swapping out directors just before production is always a cause for concern. Maybe the search for the replacement takes longer than expected. Maybe the new director doesn't like the script and wants to make changes before moving forward. Any number of things can happen when bringing on a replacement director this close to production, many of which could cause a delay in the film's release.

Marvel is going to do everything it can to keep Doctor Strange 2 on pace for its May 7, 2021 release, but there's no guarantee that will happen. And when you look at the slate of Marvel Cinematic Universe films in 2021, it's easy to see a scenario where Marvel plays it safe and bumps the Strange sequel back a year.

At Comic-Con last year, Marvel revealed its entire roster of films and Disney+ shows set to release through 2021. Next year's offerings are currently set to include Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, the Loki TV series, the Hawkeye series, What If...?, and the third Spider-Man film (produced and released by Sony but part of the MCU). 2021 is packed, especially with the addition of Spider-Man 3, which came months after the initial slate was revealed when Disney and Sony worked out a new deal for the rights to the character. The point is, there are now four MCU movies hitting theaters in 2021, so pushing Doctor Strange to 2022 could offer the franchise a little breathing room.

Marvel's 2022 is much more wide-open. There are dates for three Marvel films in 2022, but the only one that has been announced to this point is Black Panther 2. That leaves two spots in the year for Doctor Strange, one in February and one in July. If there's even the slightest concern that fans could get burnt out by four feature films and three TV shows in the same year, Marvel has a built-in solution.

Moving Doctor Strange back sounds like a great plan in theory, but there is still the factor of the MCU's connected narrative to consider. We don't know what Marvel has planned for 2022 and beyond, but the events of Doctor Strange 2 could have a direct effect on the subsequent films. And then there's WandaVision. The Disney+ series following Scarlet Witch and Vision in some sort of alternate reality will tie directly to the events of the next Doctor Strange film, and it was recently moved up from 2021 to 2020. Marvel probably doesn't want a two year gap between the two projects, which makes the handling of Doctor Strange's production schedule very tricky.

When it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there's a domino effect to every decision. Moving Doctor Strange could hurt the plans for other shows and movies, but pushing forward through a production without being totally prepared is how bad movies are made. It'll be interesting to watch how Feige and his team choose to approach this situation over the next few months.

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