It’s been a few years since Doctor Strange brought something a little different to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A man not afraid of a spectacular glow up, accessorising with a sentient cape and a stunning piece of bling that just happened to be a massively powerful infinity stone, the story of Stephen Strange was a masterclass in a simply shocking amount of arrogance somehow surviving a brutal gut punch from fate.
The movie managed to cash up at over $675 million worldwide, but Marvel has been quite casual about setting up a sequel since its release. A lot of ‘mayhaps’ and ‘sure, sometime’ from puppet master Kevin Feige, and the occasional ‘I’d be up for doing another one’ from the cast and crew, but nothing concrete. Compare that to the way the studio jumped to lay out plans for Black Panther 2, and we were never quite certain that the Sorcerer Supreme would open a portal back to the big screen with his sling ring for another solo outing.
Things seem to be getting started now, though, so here’s everything we know so far about Marvel’s plans for Doctor Strange 2…
Doctor Strange 2 director
An early Christmas present has arrived! THR has confirmed that Scott Derrickson has finally signed up to direct Doctor Strange 2. The director has often spoken of his desire to return for the sequel, so this is excellent news. He does seem like a genuinely lovely man, and he recently shared that his home had been destroyed during the Woolsey Fire, and he sadly lost nearly everything he owned.
Nearly everything…
Well done to him for snagging the new project. We can’t wait to see what he’ll do with this sequel, now that he’s free of the whole origin story factor.
Doctor Strange 2 cast
Benedict Cumberbatch will once again star in Doctor Strange 2, along with Benedict Wong. It’s likely that Rachel McAdams will be back, too.
Potentially, another MCU character could show up to help or hinder Strange and Wong in this new adventure. Who would you like to see make an appearance?
Doctor Strange 2 villain
As teased during the post-credits scene in the first film, Chiwetel Ejiofor could be the much more evil version of Mordo in this one, but we’ll have to wait and see.
“What made The Dark Knight so great was that the origin story of Batman had been well-told, and then it was time to bring in a villain where you really got to go deep,” Scott Derrickson said previously. “And not just the Joker, also Two-Face. It was a more visceral experience, I’d love to be able to do that for Doctor Strange.”
But there’s definitely one villain Derrickson’s been keen to develop for a while: “I really like the character of Nightmare and the concept [of] the Nightmare Realm. That’s early – that’s like the first Strange tale. I think that’s in the introductory episode of Doctor Strange, and I always loved that.”
Doctor Strange 2 rumours
After the first film came out, its screenwriter, Jon Spaihts, touted the appearance of Clea in a theoretical Doctor Strange 2.
“She’s a tricky character to interpret because her uncle is a kind of fire-headed omnipotent god and she’s kind of a hot babe who studies magic,” Spaihts told CBR. “That’s a tricky relationship to bring out of a comic book and on to a movie screen. But she’s a really compelling character as a foil, a love interest, a colleague of Doctor Strange’s, and she always carries with her that width of mystery as to whether she is human, and how human, and what that means for his relationship to her. So we might find a way to introduce her to the story.”
Currently, Doctor Strange 2 doesn’t have a writer attached, which means that anything Spaihts might have once envisioned for the sequel may be moot anyway.
Doctor Strange 2 release date
The rumoured release date for Doctor Strange 2 is said to be in May of 2021. The script will reportedly be written during 2019, with production set to begin in the spring of 2020.