In January, DOCTOR STRANGE director Scott Derrickson announced that he would not be directing the sequel DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, choosing to step away from the helm due to "creative differences" with Marvel Studios. When Sam Raimi was brought on to replace Derrickson in February, the project was still expected to continue hurtling toward its June production start and May 7, 2021 release date. But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and it's still not clear when DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS will be able to start filming.
A few weeks ago, Disney chose to move the film's release back to November 5, 2021. Now they have moved it back four more months, to March 25, 2022.
While it's a bummer that we're going to be getting this movie nearly a full year later than intended, I do see a silver lining to this: this was going to be a rushed production, but now Raimi has more time to bring his own vision to the story.
The DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS screenplay was written by Jade Bartlett, and Michael Waldron (head writer on the Disney+ Loki series) was recently hired to handle revisions.
Benedict Cumberbatch will be reprising the role of Doctor Strange, and he'll be joined in the cast by Benedict Wong and Chiwetel Ejiofor as returning characters Wong and Mordo. Cumberbatch's AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR and AVENGERS: ENDGAME co-star Elizabeth Olsen will also be joining the action as her super-powered character Scarlet Witch, as the story is tied in with her Disney+ series WandaVision.