Film’s players reflect on the madness
“Societally, politically and as a species we are all teetering very much on the verge of change, and the multiverse is kind of a reflection of that,” Benedict Cumberbatch said while discussing his new movie, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
Sounds like a shrewd promotional line. But the English actor is honestly acknowledging the insane developments that keep affecting his and all of our lives. From a world-shuttering plague to a sudden land war in Europe to all kinds of Hollywood craziness, it’s a pretty nutty time in our universe. And, yes, in the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe feature as well.
“Multiverse of Madness” is the MCU’S second official Doctor Strange title. Cumberbatch’s surgeon-turned-powerful sorcerer has also been key to apocalyptic “Avengers” plotlines and was instrumental in making “Spider-man: No Way Home” a multiversal marvel — the biggest box-office hit since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new “Strange” movie was directed by the creator of the first “Spider-man” film trilogy, Sam Raimi, after 2016’s
“Doctor Strange” director Scott Derrickson left the sequel project reportedly over creative differences. The studio then brought in Michael Waldron, head writer of last summer’s Disney+ TV series “Loki,” to dream up a new script.
“‘Loki’ popped the cork on multiversal storytelling, and then ‘No Way Home’ was the first time we saw characters from other universes come into the world of the MCU,” Waldron said during a joint video interview with Raimi from Los
Angeles. “In our movie, it’s the first time the characters are venturing out into other alternate universes.”
In “Madness,” Doctor Strange helps a teenage interdimensional traveler, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), escape across numerous universes from a mad person with worlddestroying powers. Along the way we meet several alternate Stephen Stranges, reunite with Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch — who’s still traumatized from the events of her “Wandavision” series — and get a welcome mix of fan-pleasing teases of new (and old) Marvel characters and multiple horrors (beside the Tobey Maguire “Spider-man” run, Raimi is also known for his “Evil Dead” films).
“It feels great coming back to work in the world of Marvel, those characters that I love,” Raimi said. “I hope to make another movie for them.”
Recently Oscar-nominated for his role in Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” Cumberbatch feels the new Marvel movie expands Strange’s character amid all its CG spectacle and parallel-world hopping.
“It’s a weird form of selfhelp,” Cumberbatch said. “He has this reflection of self by meeting his variants. As an actor, I think the device is a great way of turbocharging his development as a character. But it was also a great challenge to play and bring out, both the differences and the continuity, between these characters called Doctor Strange.”
Waldron explained how the parallel universes worked this time, compared to the “Loki,” “No Way Home” and Disney+ animated series “What If … ?’s” iterations.
“I was trying to take the multiverse seriously as a concept, and not just make it a cartoon,” he said. “The multiverse isn’t just a mirror universe where you meet your opposite self. A variant might be you who had just made one or two different, meaningful decisions along the course of their lives, and that changed who they were or their circumstances.”
Raimi and Waldron joined “Madness” in the summer of 2020 and only had a few months to work up a whole new story to replace Derrickson’s. Waldron was still writing after production began, and to present the huge and complicated multiverse concept clearly and dramatically, some six weeks of reshoots were scheduled at the end of 2021 — which was just when Cumberbatch’s “Power of the Dog” awards campaign commenced.
“There was a lot going on at the same time,” the actor goodnaturedly acknowledged. “People ask, ‘What would it be like to be in the multiverse?’ I hope life would be a lot simpler in the multiverse, actually!”