“Sinister” and “The Black Phone” filmmaker Scott Derrickson jumped into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the first “Doctor Strange” film which was a big success for the brand.
After that, Derrickson was asked to come back for the sequel which he initially did and then backed out during development over creative differences.
Just what exactly went down is not clear, but at the time it seemed a reasonably amicable split. Marvel then ultimately picked Sam Raimi to helm the “Doctor Strange” sequel which came out last year.
Speaking in an upcoming episode of The Playlist’s The Discourse podcast, Derrickson spoke about his exiting the MCU and says there really wasn’t any behind-the-scenes drama, just a difference in ideas regarding the direction of the sequel:
“All I can say is that what we said publicly is exactly the truth. We had real creative differences. You know, the movie I wanted to make and how I wanted to make it was different than – it was just increasingly obvious that we were pulling against each other. And that’s how you make a really bad movie, I think. When the producer or the studio and the filmmaker are making different movies, you end up with a monstrosity and, you know, that’s why I had to bounce.”
He admits that his take would’ve been an “extreme departure from the first film” and a “genuine horror film of sorts”. Ultimately they brought in Raimi who has shown an ability to blend horror and superhero filmmaking before such as certain sequences in his “Spider-Man” films.
Derrickson adds he’s still friends with the Marvel crew, including Kevin Feige, and even went to the sequel’s launch:
“Everything with me and Marvel is really cool. They invited me to the premiere and I went. And I’m friends with Sam [Raimi]. I love Sam, so there’s no bad blood over that.”
Derrickson most recently directed a segment of the forthcoming “V/H/S/85” which hits Shudder on October 6th.
