Now that Scott Derrickson and Marvel Studios have parted ways, leaving Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness without a director with just a few months before it’s set to begin shooting, Marvel is back in the same position it has found itself in a few times before: they need a director — one who can be trusted to work within the confines of their brand and create a compelling blockbuster — and they need it fast. They lucked out with Yes Man director Peyton Reed, who came to take on Ant-Man after creative differences broke up their relationship with Edgar Wright after years in development.
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Now, they will have to try to get just as lucky again. And the internet, collectively, is getting together to wonder just who might end up doing a movie like this.
Nobody knows, of course; when Alan Taylor left the Thor franchise, nobody could have guessed that Taika Waititi would come and take the thing over, fundamentally changing the look and feel of the whole series. Taylor himself had been brought in after things fell through with Patty Jenkins, who went to do Wonder Woman instead, and of course Joe and Anthony Russo made the jump from the Captain America franchise to the Avengers one in part because Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon tapped out.
And all of Film Twitter will be putting together more or less the same list of luminaries they would like to see take on Doctor Strange 2, but let’s be honest: people like Jordan Peele and Bong Joon Ho aren’t leaving behind their lucrative indie films, where they have virtually unlimited freedom, to come work on a Marvel sequel on short notice. Similarly, neither James Gunn nor Taika Waititi, who may seem like the most obvious in-house choices, have the time to give the project even if they wanted to.
So we broke down a list of directors who might actually be able to do it, in terms of willingness, timing, and a compatible skillset. Any one of these could make a pretty exciting version of the film, so buckle in and check them out. As always, let us know in the comments who we forgot, or hit me up on Twitter.
Rachel Talalay
Filmmaker Rachel Talalay has had a long and varied career, but bold visuals, big ideas, and genre fare all seem to come up again and again.
She directed the 1995 comic book adaptation Tank Girl, which was a critical flop at the time but has turned into a cult favorite. It embraced the comics in an over-the-top way that would feel at home in the world of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and even though it did not connect with audiences the way Spider-Verse did, it still is a weird little movie full of bold visuals and solid performances.
In recent years, Talalay has directed numerous episodes of The CW’s Arrowverse shows, Doctor Who, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and an episode of Doom Patrol, maybe TV’s closest analog to the kind of world that Derrickson made with the first Doctor Strange.
Jake Kasdan
Like many of Marvel’s filmmakers, Kasdan is not a name that is immediately familiar as a blockbuster filmmaker. He spent much of his career making low-budget dramedies like Zero Effect and The TV Set before transitioning to straight-up comedies like Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. But in the last few years, Kasdan has followed in his father Lawrence Kasdan’s footsteps, and taken on some big blockbusters in the form of two Jumanji movies in a row.
Kasdan has a firm understanding of character and a sense of humor that would both be welcome at Marvel and both the imagination and experience with big visual effects films that would allow him to exist in, and expand, the world of Doctor Strange.
Sam Raimi
It’s been a while since Sam Raimi helmed a superhero movie, and if you were going to give him a crack at the Marvel Cinematic Universe, what better choice than Doctor Strange? Then the creator of The Evil Dead could use his horror chops and the director of Spider-Man could say that he had worked on both of Steve Ditko’s biggest Marvel properties!
Nicole Kassell
Kassell might not be a household name, but some of her work is certainly catching the attention of critics and studios. In addition to directing the first two episodes of HBO’s Watchmen last year, she also helmed the penultimate episode, “Man Walks Into Abar,” which you could make a legitimate argument was the best TV episode of 2019.
Marvel has hired from the prestige TV pool before, and so it would not be entirely surprising to see them make a move for Kassell, especially since Watchmen doesn’t currently have a second season planned, so she may have a few openings in her schedule.
Brad Bird
Yeah, it’s kind of a truism that Brad Bird makes great animated movies and…less great…live-action films. But one could argue that the structure of the Marvel Cinematic Universe could provide a kind of safety net that would allow Bird to finally make a live-action movie that has a chance of being as beloved as Iron Giant or The Incredibles.
Leigh Whannell
Leigh Whannell is somebody that is kind of in the same vein as Scott Derrickson, in terms of his having a franchise horror background. He also transitioned into a stylishly-made, low-budget action movie in the form of the wildly-underrated Upgrade two years ago, which proves that he for sure at least knows how to stage a fight scene.
And, like Shazam! director David F. Sandberg, he has been playing in the same sandbox with James Wan on and off for years, so he has presumably seen some of the issues that go into making a transition from small movies to giant blockbusters, and can adjust better than most.
Robert Rodriguez
The filmmaker behind El Mariachi and Sin City might feel like an odd fit for a supernatural movie like Doctor Strange, and one might think that Rodriguez’s cred as an indie film icon might make him an odd candidate for Marvel. But really, this would be just another day at the office for the guy who did Spy Kids 3D and Alita Battle Angel. The latter, released just last year, actually drew quite a bit of enthusiasm from fans and praise for its visuals even if it did not connect with mainstream audiences.
Joshua and Jonathan Baker
The brothers behind Kin, last year’s sci-fi crime drama about a teenager who comes into possession of an alien weapon, could be right up Marvel’s alley. They made that movie — which flopped, but was visually very impressive and brought some great performances out of their large cast — on only $30 million. It isn’t hard to imagine what they could do on a much larger budget, and with the guidance of Kevin Feige to help them from wandering too far afield (the script on Kin was the movie’s weakness).
Gina Prince-Bythewood
After years doing well-received character pieces like Love & Basketball and The Secret Life of Bees, Gina Prince-Bythewood finally got tapped for a huge superhero movie — Silver and Black, which seems to be in development hell at Sony. Meanwhile, though, she took on the pilot episode of Cloak & Dagger and is in post-production on The Old Guard, based on the comic by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez. It seems like she might be a perfect fit to slip into the MCU.
Martin Scorsese
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Image courtesy of Marvel Television
