Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will see Spider-Man and The Evil Dead icon Sam Raimi making his MCU debut. The director has a long history of making indie and blockbuster cinema, with his kinetic style instantly recognizable across his long filmography.
But the famed composer Danny Elfman has often been right there beside Raimi throughout his journey as a renowned filmmaker. They first collaborated on 1990’s Darkman, post which Elfman went on to provide the scores for Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Oz The Great and Powerful. While Michael Giacchino composed a perfect score for the first Doctor Strange film, apparently, Raimi’s MCU debut needed his long-time collaborator by his side as confirmed by the director in a chat with ComicBook.com.
“I loved Michael Giacchino’s Doctor Strange music and I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to work together but I need Danny Elfman by my side. He’s like my long-lost brother and he’s really a storyteller. He helps me tell the story with his music, but it was wonderful. He loved the Doctor Strange theme and incorporated it into his musical score which was so funny for me because that composer incorporated some of Danny’s pieces into No Way Home.”
It’s worth remembering that Raimi and Elfman had a massive falling out after Spider-Man 2. Raimi had used Christopher Young’s Hellraiser score as a temp track and liked it so much he pressured Elfman to recreate it as much as possible. Elfman refused, telling Raimi “I’m not going to imitate Christopher Young. Go f**king hire Christopher Young.” (They proceeded to do just that).
Later, Elfman even severely criticized Raimi for his actions:
“It’s the first time I’ve ever walked from a director in twenty years, and hopefully the last time. He became intolerable. I’ve been on some heavy duty films, so to say that it had to be pretty bad. I have been in war zones you wouldn’t believe in 55 films. But this is the first time I’ve said, I’ve had it. It’s just not worth it. I would rather go back to waiting tables than to do Spider-Man 2 again.”
But time (and millions of dollars) heals all wounds and that miserable experience is now clearly water under the bridge for both of them. From what we’ve heard of Elfman’s Multiverse of Madness score it’s a fine successor to what Giacchino did in the first movie.
Spoileriffic clips from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are all over social media, so if you want to preserve some surprises we recommend staying off Twitter until you’ve seen the movie, which lands in theaters on May 6.
