Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Exclusive Interviews

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lightyear’ Creatives Reveal Keke Palmer and Taika Waititi Almost Played Siblings

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lightyear’ Creatives Reveal Keke Palmer and Taika Waititi Almost Played Siblings

    Pixar’s Lightyear has spent years in development. As a result, it went through quite a few changes from its original conception to its eventual release. In an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, some of the film’s lead creatives revealed that two of the project’s main characters at one point had a much different relationship than they do in the finished movie.

    When asked to discuss a few unused ideas from Lightyear‘s development process, producer Galyn Susman mentioned that Keke Palmer‘s Izzy Hawthorne and Taika Waititi‘s Mo Morrison were initially thought of as siblings. Director Angus MacLane then chimed in to explain that Uzo Aduba‘s Alicia Hawthorne, Buzz’s first partner before he gets lost in time, was not in the first drafts of the story. As a result, Izzy and Mo were made to be family so the film would have the same emotional anchor:

    They were originally siblings because Alicia didn’t exist. We wanted to show Izzy has a family, and Buzz doesn’t. Alicia got to be the personification of home that Buzz was after, and then connecting Izzy and Alicia was kind of like “oh, of course, that makes perfect sense.” But it wasn’t always that way.

    Angus MacLane

    MacLane also revealed that this version of the script had Waititi‘s Mo as a dentist. Apparently, the comedic relief character would have spent a good chunk of the movie attempting to give other characters dental check-ups, making a plethora of dental puns along the way. It’s unknown if this idea was dropped before or after Palmer and Waititi were thought of for the roles, but one can only imagine the kind of hilarious comradery that may have come out of their sibling relationship.

    Lightyear lands in theaters June 17th.

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lightyear’ Director Reveals Sox Wasn’t Always in the Entire Movie

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lightyear’ Director Reveals Sox Wasn’t Always in the Entire Movie

    One of the best new characters introduced in Lightyear is the robotic emotional support cat named Sox, voiced to perfection by Peter Sohn. The little furry sidekick accompanies Buzz and his companions throughout the entirety of their mission, constantly offering helpful information and hilarious sound bites. However, in an exclusive recent interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, director Angus MacLane revealed that Sox wasn’t always planned to be part of the entire film.

    When asked if he could share one of his favorite abandoned concepts from the movie, MacLane began to explain that Sox was at one point replaced by a speaking survival kit after the film’s first act. The kit would have a personality similar to that of IVAN, the autopilot on Lightyear’s ship in the finished product, and would have met it’s tragic end as a means of keeping Buzz alive:

    It used to be Buzz didn’t bring Sox with him, and he landed in the future, and the first interaction he had was with a robotic dog. It was a Zurg Hound, and then the only weapon he had was a survival kit from his ejection seat and the survival kit had an IVAN-like personality. She would comment on whatever he selected from the survival kit. So he’d grab the flare gun, which is still in the movie, but originally the flare gun was like, “oh, flare gun, excellent choice!”. Like that kind of thing. So it was constant, but ultimately he’d have to shove the whole suitcase into the robot’s mouth and I think that’s what killed it.

    Angus MacLane

    While all of this sounds fun, especially the idea of a Zurg Hound, it’s likely most fans are pleased that Sox was kept around instead. The character is sure to become one of Pixar’s most popular new additions and brings a certain heartfelt factor to Lightyear that helps put it above a lot of the competition. If you haven’t seen Sox in action, check him out in action when Lightyear hits theaters on June 17th.

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lightyear’ Director Reveals Reason Behind Zurg’s New Look

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lightyear’ Director Reveals Reason Behind Zurg’s New Look

    When Lightyear hits theaters on June 17th, it will introduce the world to brand new versions of a couple of iconic characters. Buzz Lightyear and his arch-nemesis, Zurg, will both appear with fresh voices, but only the latter will show up with a new design. In an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, the film’s director Angus MacLane explained the reason behind the change and why the toy within Toy Story‘s universe looks so much goofier than the film’s more threatening depiction.

    In the past, MacLane has compared the old Buzz Lightyear of Star Command show to Lucasfilm’s Ewoks series from the 1980s. While the movies are slightly more adult, the animated spin-offs are more cartoonish and largely ignore the canon established on the big screen. Over the course of Toy Story 2, audiences were introduced to a toy version of Zurg with a skirt, cape, and humorous personality. MacLane believes this action figure, owned by Andy, was one based on the non-canon Zurg from the Star Command series and not Lightyear:

    Well, I imagine the version from Toy Story 2 is from the cartoon that the Toy Story Buzz is from. In the same way that the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command cartoon show, that Zurg looks more like the Zurg that we know from Toy Story 2.

    Angus MacLane

    If anybody were to be an expert on Zurg, it would be MacLane, who has been part of the character’s creative team since the very beginning. The director used a few anime references to explain that Zurg’s Toy Story design was intended to be over-the-top for comedic effect, while the Lightyear creation was meant to be a bit more menacing:

    Interestingly, I started as an intern [at Pixar] in January of ’97, and the first thing I got to do was actually help design Zurg the robot. That one is a little more influenced by the kind of jumbo machinder Japanese toy. It has a little more of that kind of design language… Whereas our Zurg has a little bit more influence from, I would say, more of a real robot influence from Japanese anime. It’s a little bit more Patlabor or Gundam…

    Angus MacLane

    Additionally, MacLane revealed that the old look for Zurg simply wouldn’t allow for what needed to be done with the character in Lightyear‘s story. Fortunately, the design team was still able to incorporate a few of the iconic elements from his first appearance:

    There are things that we needed to do narratively. Like, he can’t have a skirt. That was done for goofiness in movement for [Toy Story 2]. We needed him to have legs, but if he puts his legs together they kind of form the skirt. The cape we dealt with in a different way. So we wanted to kind of take that idea and bring it into our world, but still make it awesome. I go, “what would be the coolest way to make Zurg?”. So we changed the design, but kept it in the language of this film.

    Angus MacLane

    While the new Zurg may not look as familiar as some might have hoped, he certainly fits the role of science-fiction villain to a tee. Hear James Brolin take over the fearsome role and decide for yourself on June 17th.

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lightyear’ Director Explains How Han Solo Inspired Film

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lightyear’ Director Explains How Han Solo Inspired Film

    Lightyear is set to be Pixar’s first science-fiction action film, and it’s director pulled out all the stops when looking for inspiration. Angus MacLane is a self-proclaimed nerd, who can reference almost any sci-fi movie or anime an interviewer might throw at him. The former Finding Dory filmmaker has name dropped countless projects as research material in the past, but chief among them has always been Star Wars.

    In multiple interviews, MacLane described Lightyear as the galaxy far, far away within the Toy Story universe. Sitting down for an exclusive chat with Murphy’s Multiverse, the director was asked if Harrison Ford‘s Han Solo served as a specific inspiration for Chris Evans‘ Buzz Lightyear. While it turns out this wasn’t his original idea, he did admit that it might be true in a more unintentional way:

    That’s a really interesting observation. I think it was sub-conscious. Han was the character I liked the most as a kid, because of his braggadocio. I think there are some very Han-like moments in the film…there’s very much an echo of that in the first act of our film. But for me, it was important to tell a story about an adult.

    Angus MacLane

    He continued to elaborate, further explaining the purpose behind following an adult character:

    The movies that I related to as a kid, the character I wanted to hang out with was the adult. It was aspirational in that way, instead of the kid. Luke I didn’t relate to, I wanted to be Han Solo. In Aliens, I wasn’t following the kid, I was following Ripley. You know what I mean? There’s something about that that was important to me for this film, and I think that’s what you’re picking up on. I wanted to tell a story about a character who had a lot of arrogance and was humbled by their own hubris.

    Angus MacLane

    MacLane might be onto something, as characters like Han Solo and Ripley have grown to become some of pop culture’s most iconic protagonists. Buzz Lightyear is already pretty well-liked in his own regard, and hopefully the director’s new take only serves to make him more popular when Lightyear flies into theaters on June 17th.

  • EXCLUSIVE: Grace VanderWaal on Tackling the Leading Role in ‘Hollywood Stargirl’

    EXCLUSIVE: Grace VanderWaal on Tackling the Leading Role in ‘Hollywood Stargirl’

    Hollywood Stargirl is a special kind of sequel. While it continues the Disney+ film from 2020, which was only known as Stargirl, it takes a very different direction. In a world where adaptations tend to follow the books closely, director Julia Hart wanted to take the character in a very different direction. Instead of sticking to the small town of Arizona, Stargirl Caraway is heading to Hollywood.

    In an exclusive interview with Stargirl herself, Grace VanderWaal, I got the chance to ask her about taking on the leading role from Graham Verchere, who played Leo Borlock in the first film. She shared about what it was like taking on that responsibility and also prepared herself for taking on the bigger role going in.

    It was a lot of pressure because the first movie has a lot to do with Leo. The movie is called Stargirl but I feel like I wasn’t the main character. So, just personally, like professionally, I was preparing myself for that amount of work and being in every scene and all that. Just taking on that responsibility. But it was so fun, it didn’t feel like hard work.

    Grace VanderWall

    She also shared about what it was like finding out that they wouldn’t be following the books but rather taking a different direction. she also highlighted that to her it was “the right thing to do.”

    All I know is that I wasn’t really surprised when I was told what it was going to be different from the books. I don’t know what I expected but It felt right, it felt like the right move when I heard about it. I don’t know why, but that makes like perfect sense, that was the right thing to do.

    Grace VanderWall

    It definitely takes the story in an interesting new direction and offers something unique to those that followed Stargirl’s story in Jerry Spinelli‘s novel, Love, Stargirl. VanderWaal is joined by a new cast consisting of Elijah Richardson, Judy Greer, Tyrel Jackson Williams, Uma Thurman, Judd Hirsch, and more. The film will release on June 3rd on Disney+.

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Writer on Sam Raimi’s Influence on the Script

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Writer on Sam Raimi’s Influence on the Script

    The one thing reviews seem to agree on is that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is that it is definitely a Sam Raimi film. Yet, the director has often spoken of the collaborative effort that is working with Marvel Studios, especially on bringing the script to life together with Loki writer Michael Waldron. In an exclusive interview with Murphys Multiverse, he talked about how that creative process was and just how much input Raimi had on the film’s script.

    We were just sharing a brain, it felt like by the end of it because we worked so closely through such a weird, challenging time. And I was always trying to write through the lens of this being a Sam Raimi film. When I wrote Dead Strange and Strange possessing his own corpse, it looked exactly what I hoped it would look, in a Sam-type way.

    Michael Waldron

    It definitely seems like he had a big part in writing the script while Waldron tried to stay true to how he would generally tackle a project. You can see many dialogue choices felt quite at home in a film he would direct, some even paying homage to his time with Spider-Man, Evil Dead, and so many more. It also turns out that the Deadites-inspired Demonic Souls that are turned into Dead Strange’s cape in the finale were the director’s idea.

    The demonic souls, that was all Sam’s idea […] that was Sam pitching that back to me and saying: ‘Could we do this?’ and we building some logical scaffolding to make this really cool thing he wanted to do. That. was a great example of how we both worked to realize one another’s ideas. Ultimately, because it is Sam Raimi and he’s one of the greatest directors to ever do it, I just felt so confident, I felt like I could write anything because he would make it look amazing.

    Michael Waldron

    That moment definitely felt like a creative decision by him, and it’s great how Waldron highlights their collaborative effort pushed the boundaries of how these ideas came together. He definitely added his unique visual style to the film and added a flair that hopefully, Marvel Studios will revisit, as the director has openly stated he would love to return for more in the future.

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Doctor Strange 2’s Michael Waldron on the “Symbiotic Nature” of Movies and Scoop Culture

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Doctor Strange 2’s Michael Waldron on the “Symbiotic Nature” of Movies and Scoop Culture

    We’ve entered a new era filled to the brim with leaks and spoilers hitting the web ahead of any project’s official release. Marvel Studios’ films and Disney+ shows are seemingly hit extremely often, as entire screenshots find their way online right before a film releases. Many sites also dabble in the world of running scoops on whatever the new hottest commodity is in the latest entry.

    In an interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron has shared his thoughts on this new “scoop culture” and what it also means for those surfing the web looking to find out what their most-anticipated project might be working on behind the scenes and how Marvel Studios’ famed secrecy has created a very interesting internet culture.

    I like the idea it can mythologize otherwise. I have so much respect for what you do, for what everybody, all the fan sites do, because that was the shit that I grew up reading. I’m such a child of Coming Attractions by Corona, Ain’t It Cool News. That stuff is probably a big reason why I’m a writer. The scoop culture, to some extent, I’m like great, that’s part of it. I think that it’s our job…we want to preserve these secrets because it just makes a better experience in the theater for the audience. You’re going to get a better POP from the audience if they don’t know what’s coming.

    Michael Waldron

    Though he also highlights one aspect that is commonly forgotten on the web, and that is most cinema-goers have no idea about the many spoilers hitting the web. As he points out, those that actively search for it are the ones to get it spoiled the most, especially when stories are dropped

    But I think it’s also…you can really if you spend a lot of time online, you can come to think that if something is spoiled on a corner of the internet that suddenly the whole world knows. But they don’t. It’s the people who are actively seeking that out and who want to find that stuff. And if they want to find it out, that means it’s probably going to enhance their enjoyment of the movie.

    Michael Waldron

    He also highlights that his biggest concern is if this kind of news hits bigger outlets that would spoil it for the general audience that typically isn’t on the Internet frequently and only finds out through official trailers if they include any references.

    And the people who don’t wanna find out, probably aren’t. It’s like, I would be mad if it headlines news on CNN about who was in the Illuminati, but it’s not. There’s [a] spoiler warning and you know where you’re going if you go to a spoiler website. It’s like it’s what we do. It’s like the symbiotic nature of this stuff and it just builds anticipation and excitement. I think it’s cool.

    Michael Waldron

    It’s definitely great to get some insight into the perspective of the modern scoop culture from the perspective of someone working on these projects. As he highlights, the internet is a very different beast and there is certain anticipation if storylines or elements are teased early on.

  • EXCLUSIVE: Michael Waldron on Making The Illuminati Interesting in ‘Multiverse of Madness’

    EXCLUSIVE: Michael Waldron on Making The Illuminati Interesting in ‘Multiverse of Madness’

    Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness delivered what’s probably the most talked-about second act in the history of the MCU. As Doctor Strange and America Chavez went on their crazy multiversal journey, they found themselves prisoners of a team of power players from Earth-838 known as the Illuminati.

    Marvel Studios has been rumored to be looking into developing a project around the Illuminati, which were created by Brian Michael Bendis in 2005, and that may still happen, but the Strange sequel introduced fans to them and then proceeded to have them systematically slaughtered by the Scarlet Witch.

    Multiverse of Madness is a very different movie from the one that Marvel Studios set out to make when it was announced that Scott Derrickson, who directed 2016’s Doctor Strange, was returning to helm the sequel. When Derrickson and Marvel Studios amicably parted way, Kevin Feige turned to Loki head writer Michael Waldron to begin work on a new script. Waldron was quickly joined by Sam Raimi and the two embarked on a creative journey that was full of COVID delays and some much-discussed reshoots and additional photography. With so much time for the film to grow and evolve, I was curious if the Illuminati were always a part of the pitch, or if they were added later on. Here’s what Waldron had to say:

    That came in the very first draft when we started over from scratch, what became the movie, they were in the first draft of that. They weren’t even in the outline, I think as I said. It was just me sitting in my living room…me feeling bored by my own second act.

    Michael Waldron

    Waldron went on to explain how his time on Rick and Morty helped shape the second act, which he described as where the movie “gets drunk”:

    In Rick and Morty, Mike McMahon created Star Trek: Lower Decks, Solar Opposites…he was the showrunner on the season I wrote for. He coined a term, the “duck bill”, where it’s like the story circle, Dan Harmon’s story circle, but around like 7 or 8 o’clock on that story circle, we always try to do a duck bill, where it’s like the story doesn’t just proceed linearly or in a regular curvature way, it actually duck bills out and it’s like the movie gets drunk and that’s what it felt like we needed at that point and somehow it stayed in there the whole way. It’s a testament to Kevin, who got behind the idea and thought it would be cool, and Sam and our DP John Matheson and our editors.

    Michael Waldron

    For Waldron and Raimi, the second act couldn’t just be a cameo fest where some of Marvel’s most powerful characters came together to wave at the camera. So the creative team went to work:

    It is ultimately a guy standing opposite several stationary characters. It takes a master of the camera like Sam to make that visually dynamic. Sam was always like, “I know the audience is gonna be excited to see these people but it can’t just be boring exposition. We’ve gotta figure out a way to make it visually dynamic.” And so they pushed me and we all pushed each other to make sure the scene was there for a reason.

    Michael Waldron

    With so much time between the first draft and the last day of additional photography, it was reasonable to assume that the final team, composed of Reed Richards, Black Bolt, Captain Carter, Captain Marvel, Mordo, and Charles Xavier, might not have been the original “dream team” pitched by Waldron. In fact, there were all kinds of wild rumors about who might be on the team with anyone from Balder to Magneto rumored at one time or another. When asked specifically about those two, Waldron gave a careful response, saying “There were lots of names discussed is all I’ll say.” Maybe those characters and more will show up down the road in another universe’s Illuminati.

  • EXCLUSIVE: Sam Raimi Was “Always Pushing for a Shorter Runtime” for ‘Multiverse of Madness’

    EXCLUSIVE: Sam Raimi Was “Always Pushing for a Shorter Runtime” for ‘Multiverse of Madness’

    With the once-secretive Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness finally in theaters, reactions have been somewhat mixed, but the film has been extremely successful at the box office. While much of the debate among fans has centered around certain groups’ expectations about rumored cameos that in reality never existed. Perhaps the second-most contentious point among fans prior to the film being released was its runtime. While the sequel clocked in at over two hours long, many felt that a longer runtime would be needed to adequately showcase the speculated story.

    When director Sam Raimi stated that the first cut of the film was significantly longer, it added to some fans’ cries that Marvel was not allowing the beloved director’s vision to come to fruition. In an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, the Doctor Strange sequel writer Michael Waldron revealed that Raimi was actually always pushing for a shorter runtime:

    Sam [Raimi], to his credit, was always really pushing for a shorter runtime. And, you know, he felt that the movie needed to move because of just how it was structured. It’s a chase movie, it’s an adventure, [ ] it’s got some Jurassic Park DNA…and so in a movie like that, it just didn’t feel like we needed three hours of it.

    Michael Waldron

    Waldron perfectly articulates how and why Multiverse of Madness is so fast-paced. Rather than being shorter for the sake of it or because tons of pieces were cut, the film moves to pull off and complement its “chase movie” structure. The writer went on to describe how his lack of tolerance for boredom may have played a role as well:

    My threshold for boredom is [ ] astronomically low, and so I just have a phobia of the movie becoming exhausting. And so yeah, once we’re off to the races in this one, we just wanted to get on the ride and go on the ride, and when it’s over, get out of there.

    Michael Waldron

    Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now playing in theaters worldwide.

  • EXCLUSIVE: Earlier ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Drafts Included 616’s Mordo

    EXCLUSIVE: Earlier ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Drafts Included 616’s Mordo

    Many of the trailers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness teased the return of Chiwetel Ejiofor‘s Karl Mordo. While we finally got to hear his first name in live-action, the version we meet in the film is actually a member of the Illuminati and the Sorcerer Supreme of 838. 616’s Doctor Strange only mentions the version from his universe and their ongoing rivalry, but he is noticeably absent from the film.

    In an interview with Michael Waldron, our very own Charles Murphy got to chance to ask if there were any plans to include the original version of the character. As it turns, out they had some versions that included his appearance but eventually decided to keep that story open to potentially revisit in the future. He goes on to say that:

    Yeah, there was. And we talked about that history and what had happened. We explored ways that would be interesting to intertwine with this story, but ultimately it felt like that was a story left for another day. He’s out there, what happened between them we don’t know. But I am certain we’ll find out.

    Michael Waldron

    It’s great that they kept it open to further explore their relationship in the future. Even 838’s version of the character survived the encounter, and it would be fun to see him build a similar relationship with Strange only to go through the multiverse to hunt him down. That also leads to two versions of Mordo meeting up in their shared hatred of Strange, especially now that he once again dabbled in something he shouldn’t have and received the third eye as a result. Mordo’s not going to be happy about that one.