Doctor Strange 2 Director Sam Raimi Reveals How Many Marvel Movies He’s Seen

In spite of being widely credited with establishing the template for 21st Century superhero films, apparently Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness filmmaker Sam Raimi has not made it his business to keep up with every installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Speaking in a new interview, Raimi says it’s the comics of the 1970s and 1980s that influence his films more than the movies of the last 15 years, noting that while he has watched a handful of Marvel movies, they’re fairly limited, with only a handful of the studio’s more than two dozen films accounted for.

According to Raimi, he has watched the three most “mainstream” Marvel movies — Iron Man, Marvel’s The Avengers, and Black Panther, all of which were considered watershed moments by critics outside of geek circles — along with the first Doctor Strange. The latter seems like a necessity to make a second Doctor Strange film, honestly.

“I had seen Iron Man, the first Avengers, Black Panther and Doctor Strange, and little clips of the other movies,” Rami told Fandango. “They’ve made 28 movies. I’ve only really seen four or five, so I’ll say not that familiar. That’s part one. By the way, I loved what I saw, but not that familiar. But part two is I was a giant fan of the Marvel comic books of the ’70s and ’80s and into the ’90s. So, I was super familiar with the characters, and their stories, and their interactions. That’s what the Marvel movies are based on.”

You can see the official synopsis for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness below.

Now that Iron Man and Captain America have left after a fierce battle in Avengers: Endgame, former genius surgeon and the strongest magician of them all, Doctor Strange, is expected to play an active role as a central figure in the Avengers. However, using his magic to manipulate time and space at will with a forbidden spell that is considered the most dangerous has opened the door to a mysterious madness called “the Multiverse.”

To restore a world where everything is changing, Strange seeks help from his ally Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme, and the Avengers’ most powerful Scarlet Witch, Wanda. But a terrible threat looms over humanity and the entire universe that no longer can be done by their power alone. Even more surprising, the greatest threat in the universe looks exactly like Doctor Strange.