With tickets about to go on sale for the much-anticipated MCU event movie, the official runtime for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has been confirmed — and its length, or lack of it, may surprise you. The (not-quite) Sorcerer Supreme’s incoming sequel promises to operate on a whole other level than its 2016 predecessor. As the title makes clear, it’ll send Benedict Cumberbatch’s Stephen Strange on a mission across multiple realities.
With various cameos and crossovers lined up, Marvel fans had been primed to expect Doctor Strange 2 to be one of the longest entries in the franchise to date. And yet the runtime that’s made its way online indicates that Sam Raimi’s directorial effort is going to be shockingly slim. Ahead of tickets dropping this Wednesday, April 6, Fandango’s Erik Davis has confirmed that the site is classifying Doctor Strange 2‘s runtime as a mere 2 hours and 6 minutes.
According to this listing, then, Doctor Strange 2 will only be 11 minutes longer than the original movie, which clocked in at 1 hour, 55 minutes. That’s despite the follow-up featuring the return of Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch, the introduction of key new heroine America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), and fully exploring the Marvel multiverse for the first time in the MCU. Not to mention finding room for who knows how many legacy characters, like Patrick Stewart’s Professor X.
If you’re doubting that the film really will end up being this short then, well, you might be on to something. Runtime listings often alter in the run-up to a movie’s release. So with a month still to go before it gets here, there’s a chance that further updates could reveal an extended length, which would no doubt be a relief to fans, who are desperate for as much multiversal madness as possible.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is on course to magic its way into theaters on May 6.