How scary will the new Doctor Strange movie be?

One of the few comic books I read regularly as a kid was Marvel’s Doctor Strange. When I heard that the Sorcerer Supreme would be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I was thrilled. His first movie did fantastic at the box office ($667) and Doctor Strange was a key player in the Avengers Infinity War / Endgame movies. Now the excitement is building for Doctor Strange’s second stand alone film – Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.

Early word about the film is that it has some very dark sequences that verge on being a horror film. But Marvel’s Kevin Feige, speaking as a guest at the New York Film Academy, clarified that ‘Madness’ won’t be a horror movie, but rather a “big MCU film with scary sequences in it” more akin to the first Indiana Jones movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

“Multiverse of Madness is the greatest title we’ve ever come up with, by the way, which is one thing that’s exciting about it,” said Feige.

Feige continued, “I mean, there are horrifying sequences in Raiders that I as a little kid would [cover my eyes] when their faces melted. Or Temple of Doom, of course, or Gremlins, or Poltergeist. These are the movies that invented the PG-13 rating, by the way. They were PG and then they were like, ‘We need another [rating].’ But that’s fun. It’s fun to be scared in that way, and not a horrific, torturous way, but a way that is legitimately scary — because Scott Derrickson is quite good at that — but scary in the service of an exhilarating emotion.”

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness will be directed by Scott Derrickson (known for horror movies Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen. We’re told that the upcoming Disney+ shows WandaVision and Loki will both tie into the sequel. But that’s all we know about the plot so far.

Good things come to those who wait and you’ll have to wait until May 2021 to see Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.