Sam Raimi Is a Perfect fit for Doctor Strange 2

It only took a moment for one of the biggest question marks in the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to transform into one of its most-anticipated projects. News broke on Wednesday night that Sam Raimi, the filmmaker behind The Evil Dead and Sony’s original Spider-Man trilogy, was in talks with Marvel Studios to replace Scott Derrickson as the director of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. If you’re not familiar with Raimi’s work beyond just the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, this probably feels like a solid and safe choice for Kevin Feige and the folks at Marvel. But if you dig a little bit deeper into Raimi, who he is as a filmmaker and the unique vision he brings to the table, it’s easy to see that this isn’t just a great hire for Doctor Strange. It’s perfect.

The hiring of Raimi is an inspired choice for Marvel, and it shows that the studio has really honed in on what it wants out of this Doctor Strange sequel. Scott Derrickson, who helmed the first Doctor Strange film, was initially set to return for the sequel, this time bringing horror to the MCU. Derrickson is, after all, a horror director at heart, responsible for movies like Sinister and Deliver Us From Evil. Something didn’t line up between Derrickson and Marvel, though, and the two sides parted ways. There’s no telling exactly what caused the split, but the general notion is that Marvel didn’t want to make Doctor Strange 2 quite as much of a horror flick as Derrickson had envisioned.

Whether that’s true or not, it opens up the door to show exactly why Raimi fits this project so well, in sort of a roundabout way. Derrickson and Raimi are both accomplished horror filmmakers, but their styles of horror are very different. Derrickson makes very traditional horror films, and he’s very good at that. His movies are dark and filled with dread. They’re straight-up scary and exactly what most people think of when they think of horror movies. Raimi’s approach to the genre is completely different.

Raimi horror movies (Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Drag Me to Hell) really aim to bring a sense of dark, twisted fun to the genre. All of his horror flicks are laugh-out-loud funny at times, they’re filled with gore, and they dive head-first into the weirdest territory possible. No matter how dark these movies get, they’re all insanely enjoyable to experience.

This is the kind of horror that Marvel wants for Doctor Strange. It won’t be filled with rotting flesh or ripped-off limbs (probably), but it will have an element of bizarre to it that the first film only touched on. Remember, the MCU has worked on tirelessly to make all of its movies fit seamlessly together, both in story and in tone. If Doctor Strange 2 is truly going to be a horror movie, Marvel was never going to let it be the kind of horror Derrickson has built a career on. Sinister is a phenomenal film, but it would take an enormous amount of effort to twist that style into the framework of the MCU. For Raimi, it’s just a matter of toning down the gore a bit, which isn’t a very tough ask.

Doctor Strange is a naturally weird character whose world is filled with already outlandish things. It’s zany to the nth degree. This is a character tailor-made for Raimi’s sensibilities. Also, let’s not forget that he’s already cranked out hit movies for Marvel with one of Steve Ditko’s other iconic creations at the forefront. Raimi was able to bring all of his filmmaking oddities together and push them into a Spider-Man trilogy that wasn’t afraid to push boundaries and blur genre lines. Think back to Willem Dafoe’s sequences in the first Spider-Man, where Norman Osborn argues with himself in the mirror as he slowly loses touch with his own reality. Now just think of what Raimi can do with Cumberbatch and a character who is being torn apart at the seams trying to hold an entire multiverse together.

Doctor Strange 2 isn’t going to be an outright terrifying scream-fest, but it’s definitely going to blend horror and superhero genre’s together in a way that we probably haven’t seen before. It’s going to be so damn weird.

It’s the perfect project for Sam Raimi.