Sam Raimi has always been open in admitting that seeing his planned Spider-Man 4 taken away from him still stings, but Hollywood has a funny way of bringing things full circle in the most unexpected of circumstances.
After the Tobey Maguire era ended, Sony opted to reboot the web-slinger with Andrew Garfield, a failed experiment that was canned after just two installments and a slew of abandoned spinoffs. Then came the character-sharing agreement with Marvel Studios, which ultimately ended with Tom Holland sharing the screen opposite his predecessors in the awe-inspiring Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The monster smash hit featured a substantial role for Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange, who will next be seen in solo sequel Multiverse of Madness, which was helmed by none other than Sam Raimi after Scott Derrickson vacated the director’s chair.
Things may have come full circle, then, but Raimi revealed in an interview with AMC Theaters that he definitely need time away from the comic book sandbox before making his return to the world of superheroes.
“I haven’t seen all the movies, all the Marvel movies because after making three of the Spider-Man movies, I had a little superhero overdose and I had to get away from them for a bit; but I saw Iron Man. I was blown away with the characters and the great direction. And then I saw the first Avengers movie and I thought they really are finally bringing Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s great visions to the screen.
I heard that Marvel was in a jam and they, their director had fallen out, Scott Derrickson, due to creative differences and they had to shoot right away and the script needed work. And that’s the kind of job I like, with challenges. I thought it would be really interesting. So I wondered how making movies of that size had changed since I last embarked on one in 2013.”
It would be an understatement to say that fans can’t wait to see what Raimi has brought to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and there isn’t long left at all until we find out, with May 6 just over the horizon.