Doctor Strange 2: It Was Kevin Feige’s Decision to Turn Mister Fantastic Into Spaghetti

Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) went full villain in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, killing anyone that stood in her way. That includes a group called The Illuminati, a version of the Avengers based in an alternate reality. She begins her rampage by removing Black Bolt’s (Anson Mount) mouth, leaving the Inhuman to scramble his own brain with his signature sonic-based powers. Next up was John Krasinski’s Reed Richards, who’s stretched to death and turned into flesh spaghetti.

As it turns out, Richards’ gruesome death came straight from Kevin Feige himself. In a new interview with before & afters, Industrial Light & Magic VFX supervisor Julian Foddy said the idea was relayed from the longtime Marvel Studios boss.

At one point, Wanda turns Reed Richards (John Krasinski) into all these shredded, stringy forms. The starting point there was some reference that was passed to us by Janek Sirrs directly from Kevin Feige,” Foddy told the website. “It was someone passing a lump of modeling clay or Play-doh through a garlic press. Janek also had some reference of the Play-doh ‘Barber Shop’ toy, which was a little figure with holes in the head and you’d turn a handle and the Play-doh would come out. That was the kind of look we were going for.”

While Foddy and his team tried to be as realistic as possible, they had to take certain liberties to still remain within the parameters Marvel Studios set up.

“Making it feel like organic material and getting the right amount of flex and balance to the strings, as they come off, was quite a technical challenge,” the filmmaker added. “There were cheats, because if you were to actually shred a real human being in such a way, there would be an awful lot of flesh and blood. Of course, this is a Marvel movie and we don’t want to be too gruesome.”

On the audio commentary for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, director Sam Raimi revealed Feige also chose Krasinski for the role after years of fan speculation.

“It’s so funny that Kevin [Feige] cast John [Krasinski] because the fans had a dream of who the perfect Reed Richards would be,” Raimi revealed. “And because this is an alternate universe, I think Kevin said, ‘Let’s make that dream come true.’ I’ve always really enjoyed all of his performances.’” 

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now streaming on Disney+. What’d you think about the sequel? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

(H/T The Direct)