Sam Raimi Was Hesitant About Including Zombie Doctor Strange in MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS
One of the things that I loved most about Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was that it felt 100% like a Sam Raimi movie, and I love his films! Well, it turns out that when Raimi jumped on board the project, he didn’t want too many Sam Raimi callbacks in the movie. In fact, when it came to zombie Doctor Strange, that was not his idea and he was hesitant about playing with this version of the character in the film.
During a recent interview with Polygon, writer Michael Waldron opened up about writing the script and working with Raimi and shared:
"I was totally writing with Sam in mind the entire time. I had watched all his movies. I tried to really get an ear for the dialogue in his movies because I wanted it to feel like a Sam Raimi film. But Sam, to his credit, had no interest in coming in and just playing the hits. Sam did not come in and say, I need you to give me a zombie. And in fact, when I presented the idea of Dead Strange to him, there was a real hesitancy on his part, because he didn't want it to seem like he was just saying 'I want to do my Sam Raimi thing.'"
Well, I’m certainly glad that they kept Zombie Strange in the film! It was such a fun moment in the film that took things to an awesome level of Marvel horror. I’m also happy that Raimi did heavily incorporate his filmmaking style into the character! In another interview with Waldron talked about how much fun he had working with Raimi on the film saying:
"It wasn't a surprise that Sam was a delight, but I had the time of my life. Sam has become one of my dearest friends and my mentor, I guess, again, I wasn't surprised at how much I learned about directing, I learned everything. It fully felt like everything there is to learn from him, over the course of this, and so I had so much fun. For a movie this hard, this big, it shouldn't have been as much fun as it was, but we had so much fun the whole way through.”
It sounds like this would have been a wonderful film project to be involved with! You can tell by watching the movie that it was a fun project for everyone involved! I really hope that this creative team comes back together again for another Marvel project at some point. Maybe Doctor Strange 3?