Doctor Strange 2 director Sam Raimi talks about making a superhero movie after 15 years

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stars Benedict Cumberbatch along with Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Rachel McAdams in important roles.

The popular American filmmaker Sam Raimi takes on the director's chair again for a superhero movie after 15 years. The film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now soon to hit theatres. As the film is nearing its release, the filmmaker opened up about working on a superhero film after a long time. He also talked about the guest appearances in Spider-Man: No Way Home, the idea that they had earlier for the first trilogy, helmed by Raimi.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the director said he didn't really have to adjust to anything much while making Doctor Strange 2, led by Benedict Cumberbatch, even though he got onto the MCU sets 15 years later. He in fact found the technology easier as pipelines in were in place to make CGI characters and there are better programmes for colouring and shading. He added that the biggest change for him, compared to 15 years ago, was the tool of telecommunications. "Zoom really enabled me to communicate with crews of a massive size all at once. I could communicate with all my department heads on one telecommunication call," he said. It could help show the storyboard design to the entire team while referring to it, get an illustration blueprint of the set to plan their spaces on the sets and also have the editor share the current cut on one call. "So these communication tools on a massive production like this were incredibly important and made the experience so much better," he added.

The filmmaker also spoke about the guest appearance of his Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire in Tom Holland's movie Spider-Man: No Way Home. Sam said seeing the actor in the film was 'emotionally moving'. He appreciated the performance of Tobey as the Spider-Man after over a decade saying that it looked like he lived a 'hard life as Spider-Man'. "So it was really emotional and so well done, but it was also like spending an afternoon with old friends who I hadn’t seen in 15 years. It was beautiful," he said.

He revealed that the producer of his Spider-Man films, Kevin Feige had shared the idea of having guest appearances in his trilogy. "I forgot if it was Wolverine he was trying to get into the movies or another character, but it was really Avi standing on the shoulders of Stan Lee and then Kevin standing on the shoulders of Avi that enabled this all to happen,” he said.

Now again, with the Doctor Strange 2 movie, he would be fulfilling this idea, having many guest appearances. Though not much is revealed, he teased the presence of Bruce Campbell in the multiverse drama. He said he can't swear the he is present in the movie. He said there are no Sam Raimi Easter eggs this time and that he has just focussed on understanding the characters of Doctor Strange and Wanda in the movie, learning what's relevant for them and where their stories were left off.

Apart from Cumberbatch, Doctor Strange 2 also features Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Rachel McAdams in important roles.

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