Kevin Feige confirms they still intend to do Doctor Strange 2

June 29th 2018, 11:45am

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

At the end of AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR we saw a lot of characters go, how you say, poof. This would perhaps explain why the future of Marvel movies is a bit hazy, with only SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL.3 confirmed for post-AVENGERS 4. But in a new interview Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige confirmed they still intend to bring their most mystical character back for another outing of reality-defending adventures.

While speaking with CinemaBlend on the Ant-Man press tour Feige was asked about how they will fit so many new stories onto their docket of movies. Feige cited Doctor Strange as an example of their strategy, saying they have plans to do a second solo movie with the character (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), but that by the time it happens it will be several years since his first film. However, in the meantime, we will have seen him in THOR: RAGNAROK and AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (and maybe AVENGERS 4?), which makes time not feel as long between outings with the character.

Sometimes it's where do those characters pop up? [Doctor] Strange, you know, whenever we do another Strange one, which we will do, it will be a number of years from the first Strange, and yet he's a very big part of [Avengers:] Infinity War. So it is just a good problem to have when you have too many beloved characters that people want to see more of, whilst keeping to our core belief that we need to keep exploring nuance and keep doing different types of things.

Even though DOCTOR STRANGE was met with some of the best reviews of the MCU and did very well at the box office for an origin story, we have heard very little on the development of a sequel. Back in April was the last time we heard anything about the sequel, with writer Robert Cargill talking about plans he and director Scott Derrickson have for the villain Nightmare and the story they were tinkering with.

Feige was speaking to a larger point about how they will juggle telling unique stories with fresh characters, while also continuing the stories of established characters like Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Ant-Man and more. Even with three movies a year those already introduced characters could take up several years worth of films. Feige said the whole point of expanding to that many movies a year was so they could both tell new stories with established characters and introduce us to something entirely unique all in one year. He elaborated, saying it was all about scheduling, which may require some patience from fans.

When you've got, what is it now, six, seven separate franchises? It's part of the scheduling process. Sometimes when people ask, 'What about this character, what about that character?' I go, 'Well, it's scheduling.' And they go, 'What's he talking about?' Scheduling. How many years between movies can you have? You know, [Thor:] Ragnarok was four years. There's four years between, right? He had an appearance in between there. So that seems to be maybe okay – sometimes, though, you want it to be less. Sometimes it can be more.

When it comes to STRANGE 2 the quote from Feige may not be anything totally new, but it's been a bit since we've heard anything about STRANGE, so it's nice to know they are still keen on giving the character another solo flick. When will that be? Who knows. The character is in a bit of a pickle by the end of INFINITY WAR, so Marvel is probably waiting until AVENGERS 4 to come out before they fully unveil anything.