Posted in: Marvel Studios, Movies | Tagged: doctor strange in the multiverse of madness, Marvel Studios, mcu, sam raimi

Sam Raimi Talks Scrapped Doctor Strange 2 Action Scene

The director of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opens up about a deleted action sequence with Rachel McAdams.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was already one of the MCU's strangest outings, sending Stephen Strange and America Chavez pinballing through alternate realities and dropping in on everything from a ruined incursion world to the Illuminati's utopia. Along the way, it delivered some of the wildest crossover beats in the MCU so far, including Wanda's brutal showdown with Captain Carter and the rest of that universe's heroes. Amid all that chaos, Rachel McAdams' Christine Palmer almost earned more of an action presence than in the first Doctor Strange, especially in the final act.

According to director Sam Raimi, she was originally asked to do even more, and he worried she might find some of it too out there. Instead, her reaction made him push the scrapped sequence further.

Sam Raimi on Rachel McAdams' Scrapped Action Sequence in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

He tells The Playlist, "I thought, 'She's not saying it's lame. She's going to make it great.' Her attitude was 'make it real and great.' She made an exciting little action scene out of it that was really as believable as you can when you're fighting ghosts and demons, which is my hobby, by the way [laughs]. When I saw her do that, I thought, 'I need to work with this actress again.' She brings so much to creating character, driving the story and the plot, so aware of the audience's intelligence and playing up to it."

In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, McAdams plays both the Earth 616 version of Christine and an alternate universe variant who works with the Illuminati. That second Christine guides Strange and America through multiversal theory, then ends up in the thick of the action during the climax, giving her a more active role than the first film, where she mostly grounded Strange's life.

The movie itself follows Stephen Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, as he protects America Chavez from Wanda Maximoff's attempt to seize her powers and reach a reality where she can live with her children. With support from Wong, America, and Christine, Strange confronts his own need for control across multiple versions of himself and finally helps Wanda see the damage her grief has caused. The cast also includes Elizabeth Olsen, Xochitl Gomez, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Benedict Wong.

The film's ending even sets up further trouble when Clea appears and tells Strange that his actions have triggered an incursion. And considering that Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are both slated as multiverse events, it would be surprising if Strange and some of his supporting cast didn't factor into those stories in a major way.

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