A couple weeks ago, we shared a rumor that said director Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness would be one of the longest films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with a possible running time of 148 minutes. Well, it looks like that rumor didn’t pan out. One month away from the May 6th release date, Fandango is selling tickets to the film at THIS LINK, and they have it listed with a running time of 126 minutes.
That puts the running time of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in between the 121 minutes of Raimi’s first Spider-Man and the 127 minute running time of his Spider-Man 2.
Raimi also sat down for an interview with Fandango that you can read HERE, and during that conversation he was asked about producer Kevin Feige’s quote that this film will make fans of Evil Dead II very happy. Raimi replied,
I think what [Kevin] meant, from my point of view, is that this film has a flavor of horror to it. I think when the original director, Scott Derrickson, and Kevin promoted the coming of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, they said that it was going to be the first Marvel superhero film that had an element of horror to it. I hope I’m not misquoting them. But even after Scott left the picture due to creative differences, that was still the mandate — to make the first Marvel film that had an element of horror. So, I kept true to their original statements. I think that’s what Kevin means, because it is spooky at some times and scary at others. It’s unknown what you’ll find in the multiverse. It’s within that unknown that suspense and darkness exists. A tool to titillate the audience’s fear. Plus, Doctor Strange in the comics has always dealt in universes and dimensions that were quite spooky, so we tried to bring some of that into this film.
Here’s the official synopsis for the film:
In Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the MCU unlocks the Multiverse and pushes its boundaries further than ever before. Journey into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.
Scripted by Jade Halley Bartlett and Loki head writer Michael Waldron, the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Benedict Wong as Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo, Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, Michael Stuhlbarg as Nicodemus West, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch, and Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, a.k.a. Miss America.. Raimi regular Bruce Campbell is expected to make an appearance as well.