Ever since the first Doctor Strange movie, Marvel has stressed that he will be an integral part of the MCU's future, even comparing him to Iron Man. With Tony Stark gone, we've seen the earliest steps being taken to expand on the Sorcerer Supreme's influence, connecting upcoming sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to Disney+ shows Loki and WandaVision. And for whatever reason, we've also seen that putting so much importance on the sequel has caused some creative rifts.
In recent weeks we've seen the departure of original director Scott Derrickson, with Sam Raimi reportedly in talks to replace him on the sequel. Loki writer Michael Waldron was then brought in to write the script, which we thought would be tweaking what Derrickson already had planned. But according to a tweet from Doctor Strange co-writer C. Robert Cargill, he and Derrickson never were given a chance to get that far...
“Since it keeps coming up in news stories, it’s worth noting that Scott and I never had the opportunity to write a draft of MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, so whatever they are working with now isn’t derivative of our work. I am of course very excited to see where they take Stephen next.”
Yeah, I guess if Marvel refused to let Derrickson work on the script that would be a pretty big problem. The sad thing is, Derrickson has been teasing the sequel for a long time and the characters he hoped to see in it. Sounds like those plans are in the wind now.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently set for May 7th 2021 with a start date for this summer. We'll see if those targets can be met.
