If you were disappointed to learn that Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson had departed the sequel over creative differences with Marvel over the script for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, you might be a little happier with this news: according to Variety, Sam Raimi is in talks to take over the film.
Naturally, this comes without official comment from Marvel, but it's certainly exciting if the deal does go through – and the likes of the trade mag hearing of talks under way makes it that much more likely.
Raimi, of course, is the man who launched his career with the original Evil Dead films, but is most famous in a superhero sense for his three Spider-Man*movies, with at least one of them (Spider-Man 2*) solidly in the pantheon of great examples of the genre. And let's not forget – because our own Chris Hewitt will surely not let us – that he's the person behind the Darkman trilogy.
Marvel hiring him would be both a huge coup given his long experience behind the camera, but also a surprise, for the same reason – it's been a while since the company has looked to work with such a seasoned filmmaker, one who will no doubt have more control over his film. Yet there's no doubt we want to see what Sam Raimi would do in the MCU, especially since his directorial output has slowed in recent years, as he's switched to more producing duties.
Doctor Strange And The Multiverse Of Madness is still scheduled to arrive on 7 May next year.