In the early 2000s, just after “Blade” and “X-Men” had laid the groundwork and before Chris Nolan’s Batman or the MCU arrived, the comic book movie genre was dominated by Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man”.
The “Evil Dead” director scored rave reviews for his first two “Spider-Man” films starring Tobey Maguire which still hold up as some of the best comic book movies made.
Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige worked as associate/executive producer on those films and recently spoke with Rotten Tomatoes about getting Raimi on board to direct the upcoming “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and how they’re letting ‘Raimi be Raimi’ complete with all his signature touches:
“Being in a position that Sam is back in the Marvel universe and working for us on Doctor Strange, which aside from Spider-Man – both Steve Ditko co-creations – was his favorite character, is really quite remarkable and full circle for me personally from my journey at Marvel. But really, it’s just exciting to get to watch Sam work again and to see Sam Raimi put his Sam Raimi stamp on Doctor Strange, on the Multiverse, on Marvel.
For people who know what that stamp is, they can be very excited. And for people who don’t yet know what that stamp is, I can’t wait for them to see this movie, be blown away by it, and go, ‘What else has he done?’, and delve into Sam Raimi’s filmography – which is one of the best of all time.”
Both “WandaVision” and especially “Loki” have set the stage for the “Doctor Strange” sequel which looks as though it will be doing some heavy lifting for this current Marvel phase.
Feige also revealed during a D23 Inside Podcast this week they have set ground rules for how the Multiverse will operate across MCU works:
“I had a meeting this morning with the whole broad Marvel Studios team going through the Multiverse and the rules of the Multiverse and exactly how to really deliver on the excitement surrounding the Multiverse. In the same way, the Multiverse is something we geek out about and we really love all the storytelling potential it brings.”
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” arrives in cinemas in March.
