Sam Raimi on ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Delays and ‘Spider-Man 4’ Regrets
Bruce Campbell as Mysterio?!?
Few directors have defined the superhero genre like Sam Raimi. The Evil Dead auteur invented the modern comic book movie with his beloved Spider-Man trilogy, which debuted with Spider-Man in 2002 and ended in 2007 with the less-than-enthusiastically received Spider-Man 3. Still, his 2004 entry Spider-Man 2 is still considered one of the best superhero films of all time, and his signature style inspired the tone and humor of the Marvel cinematic universe. Raimi returns to the fold in the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which he took on after director Scott Derrickson left the sequel over creative differences with Marvel.
Raimi has been making the press rounds lately, where he discussed the challenges of filming Multiverse of Madness. Chief among them was the scheduling, which saw Raimi begin filming while the Michael Waldron (Loki) was still finishing the script. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Raimi said “I think the hardest part was the time deadlines, … Not having the story or the script [ready] … being halfway into it and not knowing what the ending was. Michael’s trying to stay a couple days ahead of us with the next page coming out of his computer printer, and it’s hard because you want to make sure that everything is supporting the whole—that the themes are running through the picture. But when you don’t quite know everything about the picture, it’s hard to do that job as effectively as possible.”
Raimi added that he had to dial back some of his more ambitious shots just to stay on schedule, saying “What I should be doing with every shot and every moment, thinking ‘What’s the best technique?’ Not simply ‘We’ve got to make the schedule, put it on a crane. I know it can work from there. It may not be the absolute best choice, but we’ve got to keep momentum going for this unit, because I’ve got to get off this stage by five o’clock today, and they’re going to tear it down.’”
Raimi credited Marvel with giving him control, saying “Marvel allowed me complete creative freedom. However, it had to follow so many things in Marvel lore, [so] even though I had complete freedom, the previous movies and where Marvel wants to go in the future really directed the path in an incredibly specific way. Within those parameters I have freedom, but I’ve got to tell the story of those characters in a way that ties in with all of the properties simultaneously. We had to make sure, for instance, that Doctor Strange didn’t know more than he had learned about the multiverse from No Way Home. And yet we had to make sure he wasn’t ignorant of things that he had already learned. So everything was dictated by what had become before.”
Raimi also discussed his never-realized Spider-Man 4, and whether or not he would return to the series. Fans already saw Tobey Maguire reprise his iconic role in Spider-Man: No Way Home as a Peter from another universe. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Raimi lamented that he never got to bring Kraven the Hunter in as a villain. “We were going to work that character into the next Spider-Man; I always wanted to see Kraven fight Spider-Man on the big screen. I thought that would be really unique. He’s the ultimate hunter, and Spider-Man is like the most agile trickster of the skies.” Other scrapped ideas included Raimi mainstay Bruce Campbell potentially playing Mysterio, who was later played by Jake Gyllenhaal in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
As for Spider-Man 4, Raimi is game, saying “‘Does Tobey want to do it? Is there an emotional arc for him? Is there a great conflict for this character? And is there a worthy villain that fits into the theme of the piece?’ There’s a lot of questions that would have to be answered. If those could be answered, then I’d love to.”
(image: Marvel)
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