One of the major criticisms leveled at Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange was that the broad strokes of the narrative were a little too familiar, having been witnessed already in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s very first installment.
Are we talking about Robert Downey Jr. or Benedict Cumberbatch’s debut when we mention an MCU origin story that finds an arrogant-yet-brilliant goateed master of their chosen profession losing the one thing that’s defined their very existence up to that point, only for a period of enforced isolation to eventually lead them down a path to heroism, one that redefines and upends their entire worldview, before the third act forces them to combat a figure with direct ties to the gifts they inherited?
Similarities aside, it’d be safe to say that nobody’s going to be comparing Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to anything else. The reality-bending epic looks to be reinventing the rulebook of the franchise, and we can’t wait to see how it unfolds in just a few weeks.
Cumberbatch has plenty on his plate second time around, and in a new interview with Empire, the actor broke down his approach to Strange’s character arc in his long-awaited sophomore solo outing, which has forced him to look inward.
“There’s a lot of reckoning. And a lot of self-discovery. Strange is almost a stranger to himself before this film unfolds and reveals what, essentially, is in his nature, that he then has to either confront or resist or fall into or become.”
The sole trait that the Sorcerer Supreme has retained from his days as a surgeon is his inherent confidence that almost borders on arrogance, which we saw once again in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Based on what we’ve witnessed from Multiverse of Madness so far, it appears as though he still hasn’t learned his lesson.
