Following the confirmation of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s return as Mordo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the Oscar-nominated actor has opened up about the highly-anticipated MCU film. Speaking with Games Radar, Ejiofor has expressed his excitement to work with Sam Raimi for the first time as he praises the Spider-Man director’s unique way of storytelling.
“I love Sam Raimi, so I’m very excited that he’s making a film, the second Doctor Strange,” Ejiofor said. “He brings to anything he does a wealth of imagination and passion. In this genre he’s just one of the seminal figures. I remember seeing ‘Darkman’ when I was a kid. It was beyond, it’s so amazing.”
He continued, “So I think he has an incredible mind and I think he’s really able to bring that mind into his storytelling in a really unique way, and it’s very suited to the world that’s been created by Doctor Strange, and I’m very excited to see what he does with that world.”
Ejiofor is officially the first cast member of the sequel to address Raimi’s involvement, who took on the directing duties after Scott Derrickson’s sudden exit as the upcoming film’s director due to creative differences with the studio.
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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is being described as the first horror film in the MCU with Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch returning as the titular sorcerer supreme and Elizabeth Olsen also appearing as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch. According to Kevin Feige, the upcoming Disney+ shows WandaVision and Loki will both directly impact the events the Doctor Strange sequel.
Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch recently appeared in this year’s highest-grossing film of all time, Avengers: Endgame, where they were both last seen attending Tony Stark’s funeral. Loki also appeared in Endgame and was last seen after the events of the Avengers’ first battle in New York, where he escapes with the Tesseract cube.
Originally set to be directed by Scott Derrickson, the sequel will now be helm by Spider-Man‘s Sam Raimi with Loki head writer Michael Waldron set to rewrite the script that was first written by The Turning scribe Jade Bartlett. Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Benedict Wong will be reprising their roles, with Rachel McAdams not expected to return to her role of Dr. Christine Palmer.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will hit theaters on March 25, 2022.
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The first Doctor Strange movie was released in 2016 with Benedict Cumberbatch starring in the titular role. Joining him in the film were Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo, Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, and Michael Stuhlbarg as Nicodemus West. It also featured the MCU debut of critical characters from the pages of Marvel Comics, including Benedict Wong as Wong, plus Mads Mikkelsen as villain Kaecilius, and Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One (who is of Celtic origin in the film instead of East Asian origin). Doctor Strange was directed by Scott Derrickson, whose previous credits were primarily horror films like The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister, and Deliver Us from Evil.
