After reinventing Spider-Man for film in 2002, director Sam Raimi may return to superhero cinema for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
According to Variety, Raimi is in talks to helm the Doctor Strange sequel, which is slated to kick off production in May. He would replace Scott Derrickson, who stepped down as director at the beginning of January but will remain attached as a producer. Marvel Studios had no comment on the report.
Aside from his work on Sony's original Spider-Man film trilogy, Raimi is best known for his work in horror. He created the Evil Dead trilogy and has worked on such projects as Drag Me to Hell, Darkman, The Gift and the Ash vs. the Evil Dead TV series. Between his history with Spider-Man and his proclivity for horror, he makes a lot of sense for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which will lean into the "scary" side of the character.
"I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a horror film, but... it’ll be a big Marvel Cinematic Universe film with scary sequences in it," Feige teased in December. "I mean, there are horrifying sequences in [Raiders of the Lost Ark] that I, as a little kid, would [cover my eyes] when their faces melted. Or Temple of Doom, of course, or Gremlins, or Poltergeist. These are the movies that invented the PG-13 rating, by the way. They were PG and then they were like, ‘We need another [rating].’ But that’s fun. It’s fun to be scared in that way, and not a horrific, torturous way, but a way that is legitimately scary... but scary in the service of an exhilarating emotion."
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen. The film hits theaters May 7, 2021.