Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Gets New Writer

The production for Marvel Studios‘ long-awaited followup to Doctor Strange just took a curious turn as its been revealed that a new writer has been brought onto the project. According to a report from Collider, screenwriter Jade Bartlett has been brought on to contribute to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It’s not clear if Bartlett is providing another pass at the finished script or doing a total re-write at this point, though she is joining director Scott Derrickson on the project.

The jury is also still out on how the credit will break down, and whether the first film’s writers C. Robert Cargill or Jon Spaihts were involved with the project.

Bartlett is an up-and-coming screenwriter whose original screenplay Miller’s Girl was put on the 2016 Black List of the best unproduced scripts, and has since been hired to adapt the novel Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know by Universal. The Doctor Strange sequel is her first major project with Marvel Studios and her highest profile film work to date.

Little is known about the plot for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness except that it will include another major Marvel teamup as the Sorcerer Supreme will be joined by Wanda Maximoff. This story will be set up by the character’s appearance in the Disney+ series WandaVision, which will likely establish her character as the powerful and reality altering Scarlet Witch, and will then feed into her appearance in the Doctor Strange sequel.

The movie will star both Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen as Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch respectively, and recently Benedict Wong confirmed that he’d be reprising his role as Wong in the sequel. But there’s still no word on possible returns from Rachel McAdams or Chiwetel Ejiofor.

While appearing at Disney’s D23 Expo earlier this year, Olsen spoke with MTV News about the opportunity to team up with Cumberbatch in a brand new MCU film.

“I’m really excited,” she explained when asked how she feels about working closely with Benedict Cumberbatch. “I’ve never really got to work with him except for one shot where he was landing, and I was shooting something, and that was it. And we did that for like six hours one day together.”

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is scheduled to premiere in theaters on May 7, 2021.