We’re still a little surprised director Sam Raimi decided to return to the world of Marvel Comics for “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness.” Having already directed a trilogy of “Spider-Man” films and walking away from a fourth film, it had seemed that Raimi had exhausted himself with the genre. But Raimi apparently had a great time making the ‘Doctor Strange’ sequel, and he apparently is willing to do more in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Addressing longstanding rumors with Screen Geek that he’s been in the mix to helm “Avengers: Secret Wars,” Raimi couldn’t confirm the reports, but did suggest he’d love to hear from Kevin Feige and Marvel again to discuss further collaborations.
“I love 90% of the Marvel heroes that I’ve read in the great Stan Lee Marvel Universe comic books. I would love to work with Marvel again,” he said. “They haven’t reasonably asked me to. I hope they had a good experience with me. They haven’t asked me yet. I hope they do.”
At this point, it’s hard to keep up with the Raimi/Marvel rumors. A re-do of “Spider-Man 4”—the Sony film he rejected years ago— has been rumored (he hasn’t heard anything about that) and additional rumors have claimed Marvel would love him to return for “Doctor Strange 3” (‘Multiverse Of Madness’ ended with a tease of adventures with Charlize Theron’s magical character Clea).
However it shakes out for Raimi, Doctor Strange will likely become a central figure in these future “Avengers” installments, either way, given that the Multiverse is his domain and ‘Multiverse of Madness’ writer Michael Waldron is writing both ‘Avengers 5’ and its follow-up, “Avengers: Secret Wars.”
Both “Doctor Strange 3” and “Avengers: Secret Wars” do seem like more reasonable options than Sony dragging him back for “Spider-Man 4” with Tobey Maguire (the director already poured some cold water on those rumors).
Either way, Marvel has plenty of time to get all their ducks in a row as “Avengers: Secret Wars” won’t be heading to theaters until May 7, 2027, at the earliest, so cameras won’t roll until 2026; plenty of time for Raimi, or some other filmmaker to step in and shape the movie.