When Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives in March of next year, it’ll mark Sam Raimi’s first directorial effort in nine years since Disney blockbuster Oz the Great and Powerful, a big budget adventure that’s largely been lost to the sands of time despite earning almost $500 million at the box office.
While general audiences know the filmmaker best for his Spider-Man trilogy, he’s proven himself to be a very versatile talent that’s tackled a number of genres since first breaking out with The Evil Dead 40 years ago. Raimi has a distinctive visual style, and though the Sorcerer Supreme’s sequel will no doubt adhere to at least several standard tropes of the established Marvel Cinematic Universe formula, writer Michael Waldron teased in a new interview that the multiversal epic will see the horror icon utilize the breadth of his visual playbook.
“I can tell you that it’s a ride, very Sam Raimi. The film is incredibly visually thrilling. John Mathieson, our DP, who shot Gladiator and Logan, I think the look of it is going to be unlike anything you’ve seen in the MCU before.”
That means there are going to be smash cuts, fades, whip pans, Bruce Campbell and more than likely a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 33, which Raimi refers to as ‘The Classic’ and has appeared in eleven of his sixteen features to date. Something as wild as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness feels perfectly suited to his stylistic sensibilities, and no offense to Scott Derrickson, but it has to be considered a serious upgrade.
Plot details remain firmly under wraps for now, but Sam Raimi helming a reality-bending comic book blockbuster with horror and fantasy elements is a tantalizing prospect to say the least, and while the first Doctor Strange isn’t widely renowned as one of the MCU’s top tier efforts, the second installment possesses all of the tools on either side of the camera to go down as one of the franchise’s very best.
