Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is already one of the most anticipated movies of the year. While still being the follow-up to 2016’s Doctor Strange, the sequel promises to be packed to the brim with content that could rival big Marvel Studios films like Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Central to Multiverse of Madness’ story is, of course, the multiverse. With that comes infinite possibilities of what we could see in the film or where our characters could go. While cracking open the multiverse is no easy feat, Marvel Studios producer Richie Palmer told D23 Magazine that the filmmakers already had a starting point. Specifically, Palmer credited the Disney+ series Loki as being a major influence for the Doctor Strange sequel.
While Spider-Man: No Way Home was the first official live-action venture into the multiverse, Loki already set the scene. Michael Waldron served as the writer for both Loki and Multiverse of Madness. Palmer stated:
[Waldron’s involvement in the movie] was a blessing for us, because we got the guy who created the rules of the Multiverse for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to come in and continue that story in our movie…Michael’s strength is the character stuff. As you saw in Loki, all the best moments involved the characters against the backdrop of those alternate timelines. It’s kind of like that in our movie, too. Michael’s script brought a lot of heart to sci-fi concepts such as the Multiverse.Richie Palmer
The “rules of the multiverse” apparently came quite in handy. Palmer goes on to note:
It was really exciting. We found that we didn’t need to spend a lot of time recapping the rules; we felt the audience would get a lot of that by now. With Michael, we could jump into telling a good story within what’s already been established.
Richie Palmer
It is exciting and even rewarding to think that the dramatic moments from Loki’s memorable finale of the Sacred Timeline branching off into a chaotic multiverse could lead straight into Doctor Strange’s dealings with it. With the concept of the multiverse being built up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is also nice to know that its rules are being kept consistent. Audiences will have the chance to see just how much Multiverse of Madness was influenced by Loki when the sequel hits theaters on May 6.
Source: D23 via The Direct
