Way back in Spider-Man 2, Sam Raimi planted a Doctor Strange gag as a nod to the comics-heads in the audience – so it’s fitting that all these years later, he’s at the helm of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. The legendary director is back in action for the first time since 2013’s Oz The Great And Powerful, cooking up the sequel to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Marvel debut after original director Scott Derrickson left the project. It’s no surprise that the character he cheekily teased way back in 2004 would be the one that tempted him back to the big screen. “I have always loved his comic, and the first movie was brilliantly done,” he says of Strange.
But as it turns out, that’s not the only comic book character that Raimi has a particular affection for. If Batman is predominantly in the custody of Matt Reeves right now – with The Batman still raking in major cash at the box office, and spin-off series heading to HBO Max – the Caped Crusader would be a real draw for the director. “I’ve always loved Batman. If I ever saw the Batsignal up in the air, I’d come running,” he laughs. In fact, it sounds like there’s a whole list of comic book characters beckoning to Raimi too. “If I heard that deep, gurgling laugh of The Shadow coming from the darkness, I would also tentatively step outside. And Spider-Man would be ahead of Doctor Strange, but I don’t want to put him down the list!”
As for Raimi’s beloved original Spider-Man trilogy, several characters – from Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker, to Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock and Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin – were all recently revived on the big screen recently in Spider-Man: No Way Home. The filmmaker was thrilled to see all three back in the limelight. “I was honoured,” he says. “It’s like someone said, ‘You know your old friends that have passed away? We’ve found a way to bring them back for a brief time.’” Almost as good as having the power of the sun in the palm of your hand, eh?
Read more about Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness in the upcoming issue ofEmpire – talking to Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, director Sam Raimi, writer Michael Waldron, producer Richie Palmer, and Marvel boss Kevin Feige about a movie that breaks all the rules of reality. Find it on newsstands from Thursday 17 March, or pre-order a copy online here. Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness comes to cinemas from 6 May.