Why the original writer and director of Doctor Strange left the sequel

“Creative differences” is the answer anyone in Hollywood gives when asked why this or that project didn’t work out. Usually, it means there was some kind of conflict behind the scenes that couldn’t be reconciled, to the point where the parties had to go their separate ways.

Creative differences are especially wont to crop up when the studio has a clear vision for the movie that doesn’t necessarily align with what the director wants to do, and there’s no studio with a clearer vision than Marvel Studios. President Kevin Feige has a famously detailed roadmap for where his Marvel Cinematic Universe needs to go. It’s led to a couple of dust-ups over the years, most notably when Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright exited Ant-Man, which was taken over by Peyton Reed.

The situation on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness isn’t as dramatic, but director Scott Derrickson and writer C. Robert Cargill — the guys who made the first movie — did both leave the project, to be replaced by Spider-Man director Sam Raimi.

Marvel Studios and the original Doctor Strange producers wanted to make different movies

Why did they leave? I think you already know. “It was creative differences,” Cargill told Cinema Blend. “[Scott Derrickson] wanted to do one movie, and Marvel wanted to do another movie.”

Derrickson and Cargill eventually left to make a movie based on The Black Phone, a horror-themed short story by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill. But at one point, Derrickson wanted to do both projects. “Scott was like, he called me up and said, ‘Dude, I have to make this movie. It’s gotta be my movie, I have to do this. Do you mind waiting until after I’m done with [Doctor Strange 2], and he really wanted to bring me onto Strange as well. But in the event that it didn’t happen, he was like, ‘Do you mind waiting?’ And I was like, ‘You know what, if you feel this passionately about it, no. I’ll wait a couple years to make this movie.’”

"It came down to Scott, and Scott’s like, ‘Well, I can make this movie that I’m compromising what I wanted to do on, or I could make The Black Phone,’ and he goes, ‘You know, I want to make a movie with Cargill. I’m gonna go make The Black Phone.’ It was, as he said publicly, it was a hard choice to leave Strange behind; but it made it easier that he had a movie that he was looking forward to. And then the experience was just so great that we’re just are so proud and happy with what we made."

Cargill wouldn’t reveal what the original idea for Doctor Strange 2 was, or whether it would have gotten the awesome title Marvel eventually gave it: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Funnily enough, The Black Phone and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness are coming out pretty close in time to one another, on January 28 and March 25 of 2022 respectively. However you get it, they’ll be plenty of strangeness to go around.

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