Sam Raimi is known for his horror franchise Evil Dead and the Spider-Man trilogy in the early 2000s. However, he will soon be bringing two genres together (horror AND comic book movies) in Doctor Strange and The Multiverse of Madness. But what convinced Raimi to work on another superhero project after the "awful" reactions to 2007's Spider-Man 3? The filmmaker has opened up about his decision to take on the Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel.
There is little doubt that the reaction to Spider-Man 3 was bad enough to cause Raimi to avoid making movies. Since 2007, he has only worked on two films (Drag Me To Hell and Oz the Great and Powerful). So it was a huge (and pleasant) surprise when Raimi was announced as the new director of Doctor Strange 2 after Scott Derrickson left the project.
So why Doctor Strange 2? Raimi spoke to Collider where he admitted that the reaction to Spider-Man 3 had a huge effect on him but there was something about the Doctor Strange sequel that intrigued him.
"I didn't know that I could face it again because it was so awful, having been the director of Spider-Man 3. The Internet was getting revved up and people disliked that movie and they sure let me know about it. So, it was difficult to take back on," Raimi said.
"But then, I found out that there was an opening on Doctor Strange 2. My agent called me and said, 'They're looking for a director at Marvel for this movie and your name came up. Would you be interested?' And I thought, 'I wonder if I could still do it.' They're really demanding, those types of pictures. And I felt, 'Well, that's reason enough,'" he added.
Raimi admitted that he thinks highly of Benedict Cumberbatch's character. "I've always really liked the character of Doctor Strange. He was not my favorite, but he was right up there with the favorites," he said.
Interestingly, Raimi also confessed that he enjoyed Derrickson's movie.
"I loved the first movie, I thought Scott Derrickson did a wonderful job, an incredible job. So, I said, 'Yeah.' They left the character in a great place. I didn't think I would be doing another superhero movie. it just happened," he concluded.
We're certainly glad that Raimi changed his mind about working on superhero movies. With that in mind, we can't wait to see what he did for Doctor Strange 2 next year.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is scheduled for release on March 25, 2022.
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