Doctor Strange 2 Concept Art Reveals Shows Horrifying Zombie Strange

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness the boundaries more than any Marvel Studios project before it. The Sam Raimi film dove into the concept of a multiverse head-on and, as a result, introduced some absolutely bizarre characters. One of those was Zombie Strange, a version of Benedict Cumberbatch’s eponymous sorcerer from another universe killed in the movie’s opening moments. While the character was plenty gruesome when he was revived later in the film, some concept artists took it all a step further.

Visual development artist Thomas du Crest has shared a series of paintings of Zombie Strange, each one more horrific than the last. The first shows the Master of the Mystic Arts in a similar fashion to how he was in the movie, but with his nose rotted away. Each piece then takes more skin away until the sorcerer is left with just a skeleton. See the pieces for yourself below.

Zombie Strange nearly didn’t make the cut

At one point, Raimi expressed concern at including the character because it was essentially resembled his style too much.

“I was totally writing with Sam in mind the entire time,” Madness writer Michael Waldron shared with Polygon last year. “I had watched all his movies. I tried to really get an ear for the dialogue in his movies because I wanted it to feel like a Sam Raimi film. But Sam, to his credit, had no interest in coming in and just playing the hits. Sam did not come in and say, I need you to give me a zombie. And in fact, when I presented the idea of Dead Strange to him, there was a real hesitancy on his part, because he didn’t want it to seem like he was just saying ‘I want to do my Sam Raimi thing.’”

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now streaming on Disney+ and available for purchase on physical home media wherever movies are sold. 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!