Scott Derrickson: Doctor Strange sequel will be the first scary MCU film

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

We covered the 2016 Marvel Cinematic Universe film DOCTOR STRANGE a little bit here on Arrow in the Head, since the film was directed by Scott Derrickson, a horror regular whose credits include HELLRAISER: INFERNO, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE, SINISTER, and DELIVER US FROM EVIL. DOCTOR STRANGE didn't include much in the way of horror, but it did allow Derrickson to deliver some cool visuals and a sequence that was similar to one in THE FRIGHTENERS.

Derrickson is returning to helm the DOCTOR STRANGE sequel, and this time he intends to bring more horror into the picture. During an appearance on the Marvel panel at the San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, Derrickson had this to say about the new film: 

What excites me about Doctor Strange is what made him great in the comics; that he doesn't fight villains from this earth, or even from this universe, but from the multiverse and other dimensions, so you get into all kinds of psychedelic weirdness, which this movie is going to. But when I came and talked to (producer Kevin Feige) about doing a sequel, I said, 'I don't want to do just another sequel to do a sequel, if I'm gonna do it it has to go into the territory that drew me into the Doctor Strange comics in the first place, which is how they dipped into the gothic and the horror and the horrific, and we're gonna make the first scary MCU film."

Derrickson and Feige were joined on the stage by Doctor Strange himself, Benedict Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch added that, 

I think it's vital to maintain the integrity of humor and stuff that we had in the first film, but with this twist of horror, which I think will really have people gripped."

Cumberbatch said Strange will be facing unexpected things in the sequel and will find himself in the position of not knowing what's coming at him. After Strange was given a lot of authority in THOR: RAGNAROK, AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, and AVENGERS: ENDGAME, this film will be

going back to kind of trying to destroy him a bit."

The villain of the film is rumored to be Nightmare, ruler of the Dream Dimension, a character who has been lurking around Marvel Comics since 1963. While we wait to find out if Nightmare is definitely in there and who will be playing him, it was confirmed that Doctor Strange will be joined in the film by a fellow MCU hero, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch.

The aim to make this something of a horror movie is clear in the title, which has a touch of Lovecraft to it: DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS.

DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS is scheduled to reach theatres on May 7, 2021.