Doctor Strange Director Exit Is Just the Latest in Setbacks for Marvel Studios Filmmakers

Marvel Studios has taken control of the Internet this evening as Scott Derrickson has left the production of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But, for many fans and pundits, this is just the latest case of the company having friction with a high-profile creative mind. Edgar Wright, Patty Jenkins and Scott Derrickson are the list of names that officially signed on then parted ways with the company. But, people are also bringing up Ava DuVernay’s talks with the studio and Joss Whedon’s departure as well.

Others are even mentioning that awkward moment where Disney fired James Gunn and then walked it back to re-hire him again. All in all, it is a weird look all the way around to have a director exit a project this close to the planned filming date. But, the film soldiers on and Marvel is already in the process of trying to wrangle another director to lead the project home. Although, Derrickson said on his Twitter account that he would still be aboard as an executive producer on the film.

Marvel’s statement to Variety read, “Marvel Studios and Scott Derrickson have amicably parted ways on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness due to creative differences. We remain grateful to Scott for his contributions to the MCU.”

Here are some other times that directors with strong visions butted heads with Marvel Studios:

https://comicbook.com/marvel/2019/12/30/marvel-studios-doctor-strange-multiverse-of-madness-scary-sequences-not-horror-movie-kevin-feige/

Edgar Wright: Ant-Man

Way before Peyton Reed ever got a shot at Ant-Man, Edgar Wright was the man tabbed to help shape the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s vision. But, Scott Lang and the company had to wait a long time on the sidelines before getting a moment in the sun. Wright just couldn’t come to an agreement with the Marvel brain trust around the film and eventually left. He told Variety about the split back in 2017 and spoke very diplomatically about the situation.

“The most diplomatic answer is I wanted to make a Marvel movie but I don’t think they really wanted to make an Edgar Wright movie,” the director began. “I was the writer-director on it and then they wanted to do a draft without me, and having written all my other movies, that’s a tough thing to move forward. Suddenly becoming a director for hire on it, you’re sort of less emotionally invested and you start to wonder why you’re there, really.”

Patty Jenkins – Thor: The Dark World

Thor: The Dark World is a weird movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe canon. Alan Taylor took over for Patty Jenkins after she had taken the reins. But, she left the project in 2011 because of creative differences. That may have been for the best as Thor 2 consistently ranks in the bottom of MCU film rankings. (Although Endgame made sure to remind everyone that it was going to matter in defeating Thanos.) Jenkins told Uproxx that she was glad that they found the right director for the project back in 2017.

“I don’t think I could have made a good movie out of Thor 2 because I wasn’t the right director. And I don’t think I would have been in the running for Wonder Woman as a result,” Jenkins said to the website. “And that’s one of the reasons why I’m glad I didn’t do it because I could have made a great Thor if I could have done the story that I was wanting to do. But I don’t think I was the right person to make a great Thor out of the story they wanted to do.”

Scott Derrickson – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

All of this, of course, leads up to Derrickson’s exit today. Most fans were absolutely stoked at the idea of a Horror Marvel movie. When that admission slipped out at San Diego Comic-Con, many wondered how many chances the director would be allowed to take. From the optics it looks like maybe the leash wouldn’t have been as long as he would have liked. Kevin Feige’s comments from last year about the film shed a lot of light on what they studio was probably weighing with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

“Multiverse of Madness is the greatest title we’ve ever come up with, by the way, which is one thing that’s exciting about it,” Feige said to the New York Film Academy “I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a horror film, but … it’ll be a big MCU film with scary sequences in it.”

“I mean, there are horrifying sequences in Raiders that I as a little kid would [cover my eyes] when their faces melted. Or Temple of Doom, of course, or Gremlins, or Poltergeist,” Feige added. “These are the movies that invented the PG-13 rating, by the way. They were PG and then 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 a way that is legitimately scary — because Scott Derrickson is quite good at that — but scary in the service of an exhilarating emotion.”