Sam Raimi on How Doctor Strange 2's Many Delays Made the Film Better

Rolling Stone asked Raimi about how moving around Stephen Strange's sequel affected the development of Multiverse. This movie was supposed to come out last year, but is now coming hot off the heels of WandaVision and Spider-Man: No Way Home, both of which were originally meant to follow this movie. As a result of the restructuring, Home and WandaVision had to guide this film in a specific way. It was important to make sure that Strange wasn't a complete idiot about the multiverse and that he didn't suddenly become an expert on it.

It was important to keep her as consistent as possible since Wanda was faced with the possibility of getting her kids back after her show ended. When he first heard of the situation in Westview, Raimi admitted that he had no idea what was going on. When it came time to check on the show to make sure the movie was consistent, he only saw a few key moments of some episodes that I was told directly impact our storyline. Since he hadn't watched the entire show, he deferred to her for how she would act in the moment.

Raimi wouldn't use the word "mess" to describe it, but he did say that it had the potential to be a mess. He said the process was chaotic, wonderful, creative and that he has a better understanding of what other writers and directors have gone through.

He thinks that the film became a better product because of the delays that COVID contributed to. The hardest part of making Multiverse was pushing the film back, as they were halfway through shooting the movie and still unsure what the ending would be, he said. It doesn't sound like Raimi is in a good mood to go through that again. I feel a lot better now. The process is behind us.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is coming to theaters. We will review the film soon.

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