Doctor Strange 2 goes in for 6 weeks of reshoots
Sam Raimi's Multiverse Of Madness is playing a bit of catch-up after COVID-related delays
Benedict Cumberbatch has an extremely busy six weeks ahead of him, as THR reports that the Doctor Strange star has just been tapped for a month and a half of reshoots and additional photography on Sam Raimi’s upcoming sequel, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness.
The reshoots on the film are being described as “significant,” with reports that Cumberbatch and the film’s crew will be putting in six days per week as they race to get the movie’s filming completed once and for all. (Multiverse is currently being aimed at a May 6, 2022, release date, although recent fluctuations on the Disney film calendar could always lead to it getting bumped around.)
The good news is that, by all (anonymous) reports, these don’t appear to be the kind of “Oh fuck, our third act doesn’t work” reshoots that sometimes afflict major studio blockbusters. (Pardon us while we briefly suppress our flashbacks to Jessica Chastain’s recent revelation that she didn’t even known her character’s name in X-Men: Dark Phoenix until the movie actually came out.)
Rather, the Strange reshoots appear to be about making up for gaps that crept into the film’s shooting schedule over the last year, often related to actor availability. Reshoots and additional photography are built in to the Marvel movie-making method at this point; THR quotes sources stating that six weeks isn’t even the longest reshoot period the studio’s films have had to deal with in recent memory.
The biggest vote of confidence, though, is probably the fact that the film’s leadership is staying stable: Loki writer Michael Waldron is reportedly on hand to write the reshoot material, and Raimi is still reportedly at the center of the process.
Given how much emphasis Marvel has been putting on the whole “Multiverse” concept of late—most notably with the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home, which also prominently features Cumberbatch’s Sorcerer Supreme—there’s presumably a great deal riding on nailing the cosmic landing on this one.