The negative reviews that greeted “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” went beyond just critics, as even Marvel fans aimed their ire towards this misbegotten project. The movie was just plain bad and one of the worst big studio releases to have come out this year.
The Marvel movie was initially supposed to be directed by Scott Derickson, but he dropped out of the project due to “creative differences.” The talented Sam Raimi replaced him, but the end result was still a bad movie.
Speaking in an upcoming episode of The Playlist’s The Discourse podcast, Derrickson spoke about his breakup with Marvel Studios. The reason for his departure, he says, was quite simple: they didn’t let him make the movie that he envisioned.
“All I can say is that what we said publicly is exactly the truth. We had real creative differences. You know, the movie I wanted to make and how I wanted to make it was different than–it was just increasingly obvious that we were pulling against each other. And that’s how you make a really bad movie, I think. When the producer or the studio and the filmmaker are making different movies, you end up with a monstrosity and, you know, that’s why I had to bounce.”
Derrickson would go on to add that his version of the Marvel sequel was an “extreme departure from the first film” and would have been “a genuine horror film of sorts.”
Xochitl Gomez, who plays America Chavez in ‘Multiverse of Madness’ broke her silence recently by implying and responding to criticisms of the movie. She claimed the ‘Multiverse of Madness’ script had 33 rewrites!
Michael Waldron turned out to be the sole name credited on the screenplay. This does, however, add further proof that Marvel Studios, and Kevin Feige, get a little too involved on the creative side of things when it comes to these MCU movies.
A few months back, Bruce Campbell made a joke about the rewrites:
“The Marvel guys, they make eight of these movies at the same time, so they’re always updating storylines. So, my buddy Sam [Raimi] has had to add scenes that [Marvel] told him he had to shoot, and he’s removed scenes that no longer apply. So until May rolls around I don’t think Benedict Cumberbatch even knows if he’s in this movie or not."
All's well that ends well though. Right after stepping down from “Doctor Strange,” Derrickson ended up writing and directing indie horror hit “The Black Phone.” He’s also already shot this action movie, “The Gorge,” starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Miles Teller and Sigourney Weaver, set for 2024 release.