Doctor Strange 2: Sam Raimi Teases Extensive Deleted Scenes

Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is shaping up to be one of the wildest entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to this point, stuffed to the brim with parallel realities and alternate dimensions. There’s a ton going on in the film, so it’s a bit surprising that the new Doctor Strange adventure is rather short by MCU standards. The Multiverse of Madness is just over two hours, whereas recent entries like Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home were around the two-and-a-half hour mark. Given the multiverse of it all, it’s safe to assume that a lot had to be trimmed from Doctor Strange 2 in order to hit that shorter runtime.

Speaking to Collider, director Sam Raimi opened up about the potential deleted scenes for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He admitted that he wasn’t sure which scenes Marvel would choose to include on any kind of home release, but he did say that there would be a lot to choose from.

“I’m trying to remember what Marvel is including in the deleted scenes. It’s really going to be their decision, but I know that there are at least two or three deleted scenes that will be included,” Raimi said. “I don’t know the full extent of them though.”

Raimi went on to say that the cut of Doctor Strange 2 that he turned in before reshoots was around two hours and 40 minutes. Reshot footage was added to that and a few scenes were cut, trimming it down to just over two hours. At least 35 minutes were removed from that initial cut, if not more once reshoots are considered.

“Well, the first cut was I actually don’t remember the length of it. It was probably like two hours and 40 minutes, and it slowly came down even though we did the reshoots,” the director explained. “We took out material even though the reshoots went in. So, it slowly got down to about two hours and five minutes is the total.”

Marvel Studios won’t release all of that deleted footage, as some of it may have been reshot and certain scenes were probably removed because they were no longer part of the story. We’ll have to wait and see just how much Marvel allows to be shared when the home release arrives.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now playing in theaters.