Doctor Strange 2: Benedict Cumberbatch Comments On Director Change to Spider-Man's Sam Raimi
When Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was announced at San Diego Comic-Con, Scott Derrickson took the stage with Kevin Feige as the film's director and promises Marvel's first scary film. In the months which followed, the original Doctor Strange director who was returning for the sequel parted ways with Marvel Studios over "creative differences." Quickly after the switch, it was revealed that the original Spider-Man trilogy director Sam Raimi would be stepping into that void to steer the ship on Multiverse of Madness. Now, Doctor Strange himself Benedict Cumberbatch has commented on the change.
“I was sad to hear about it, but that was not my decision,” Cumberbatch told THR. “I completely respected the studio’s decision, and it was done very amicably. The grown-ups called and just talked me through it. And that was that.”
Raimi is seasoned vet not only in the comic book movie space but also in the horror genre. The director has spent plenty of time making scary movies since his time directing Tobey Maguire in the first Spider-Man trilogy, so the promise of a scary movie may still be fulfilled with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
“He was an assured pair of hands, who knew that world,” Cumberbatch said of Raimi. “He’s got certain Raimi traits. The smashed-zoom close-up. The mixture of just on the level of horror and just on the level of camp. There’s fun in there, but there should be some real thrills as well.” As it turns out, Raimi has been encouraging Cumberbatch to improvise on the Marvel set. “With the first film, you’re always locked into a script, because it’s the origin story,” Cumberbatch said. “But there was a lot more freedom this time around. I guess, because we were … not literally making it up as we go along, but sometimes it feels like that. Marvel has this amazing ability to come into production: ‘We really just have to start shooting now. It doesn’t matter that the third act is not quite where you want it to be.’ You really do things on a wing and a prayer sometimes.”
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