Spider-Man director Sam Raimi has recently confirmed that he will take on the upcoming Marvel movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The movie is considered as a sequel of Doctor Strange (2016) starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the leading role.
In an interview with Coming Soon, the director of Spider-Man trilogy unveiled his involvement in the new project of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He also referred to a coincidental reference to Doctor Strange’s character in Spider-Man 2. Before MCU’s Iron Man and blockbusters like Blade and X-Men became hot, Spider-Man had been known as a top-world famous comic book movie of the 21st century.
There was a dialogue in the 2004 superhero film mentioning another Marvel hero by chance. In a scene, J Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) and Ted Hoffman (Ted Raimi) were discussing what the supervillain Otto Octavius’s moniker should be, and “Doctor Strange” was referred. However, it was dismissed immediately because Jameson noted this name was taken. This detail seems to imply the superhero Doctor Strange.
Also in the interview, Raimi expressed his passion for the time stone keeper.
"I loved Doctor Strange as a kid, but he was always after Spider-Man and Batman for me, he was probably at number five for me of great comic book characters."
He further said,
"It was really funny to me that coincidentally that line was in the movie. I gotta say I wish we had the foresight to know that I was going to be involved in the project.”
The MCU wouldn’t exist if there were no Spider-Man trilogy directed by Sam Raimi. Thanks to the series, Hollywood has seen the great potentials of superheroes in addition to Batman and Superman, and as a result, both Marvel and DC have lots of shared universes via films and TVs. In the future, Marvel is going to exploit other superheroes in the MCU, including some characters in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.