Marvel Studios may have found its next Doctor Strange director.
According to Variety, Sam Raimi is in talks to helm the franchise's highly anticipated sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Raimi, who helmed the original Spider-Man film trilogy, would replace Scott Derrickson, who stepped down as director earlier this year due to "creative differences."
"Marvel Studios and Scott Derrickson have amicably parted ways on ‘Doctor Strange’ in the Multiverse of Madness due to creative differences," Marvel said in a statement to TheWrap. "... We remain grateful to Scott for his contributions to the MCU."
Derrickson directed the first Doctor Strange (2016), starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular superhero. Derrickson confirmed he will retain his executive producer role for the sequel.
The Multiverse of Madness is scheduled to begin filming sometime in May with Cumberbatch reprising his role as the titular superhero. Benedict Wong and Chiwetel Ejiofor are expected to return to the franchise, alongside Elizabeth Olsen, who will reprise her MCU character Scarlet Witch.
At this time, there are very few details about what the Doctor Strange sequel will deliver; however, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige claimed it will be "the first scary MCU film."
"I wouldn’t necessarily say that’s a horror film, but it is, as Scott Derrickson—our director—has pitched it, a big MCU film with scary sequences in it," he explained last year. "When I was a kid in the '80s, Spielberg did an amazing job [doing that]. There are horrifying sequences in Raiders [of the Lost Ark] that I would, as a little kid, [cover my eyes] when their faces melted. Or Temple of Doom, of course, or Gremlins or Poltergeist ... It’s fun to be scared in that way and not a horrific, torturous way, but in a way that is legitimately scary because Scott Derrickson’s quite good at that. But scary in the service of an exhilarating emotion."
Raimi has a lot of experience within the horror genre, as he's directed and/or produced films like The Evil Dead, Drag Me to Hell, 2015's Poltergeist, The Possession, and 2020's The Grudge.
