DARKER MAGIC

SAM RAIMI IS BACK, AND HE WANTS TO SCARE US TO DEATH AND SCRAMBLE OUR MINDS. WE SPEAK TO THE DIRECTOR, PLUS STAR BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH AND MORE, ABOUT THE SECRETS OF DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS

WORDS CHRIS HEWITT

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH

HAS A BUCKET LIST.

Hard to believe that someone who’s played Sherlock Holmes, Khan Noonien Singh, Frankenstein (and The Monster), plus a giant talking dragon, been nominated for two Oscars, and helped save half the universe would have anything left to tick off, but he does. Three things, in fact. “People say, ‘Well, what do you want to do next?’” he tells Empire. “Well, a Western, a horror and a musical. Those are the three things. I guess I’ve done a version of a Western, and now I’ve done a version of a horror.”

The version of a Western is, of course, Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog. The version of a horror, though, is perhaps a little harder to guess, given that it’s the latest instalment in the world’s most lucrative franchise; one perhaps better known for cloaks than daggers. But in case the luridly Lovecraftian title hadn’t tipped you off, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, the 28th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the latest to star Cumberbatch as the surgeon-turnedsorcerer, is trying something a little different.

It is a title, and a movie, that not only allows Cumberbatch to tick another one off the old bucket list, but which is full of intrigue. It promises to delve deep into the mysteries of the Multiverse, just months after Spider-Man: No Way Home properly introduced audiences to the concept. It heralds the return of a much-missed director who helped pave the way for the MCU in the first place. And yes, it’s Marvel Studios’ first horror flick, with zombies and jump scares and darkness aplenty. “I think it’s going to be surprising for some people, tonally, about where the MCU goes,” says the film’s producer, and Marvel Studios sorcerer supremo, Kevin Feige. You won’t believe your Eyes of Agamotto.

IT’S TAKEN ALMOST six years for Doctor Strange to get his first sequel. Not that the character has been sitting around with his magical thumb up his butt since Doctor Strange debuted to a decent critical and commercial reception in 2016. Instead, he has shown up in an impactful cameo in Thor: Ragnarok; was a major player in Avengers: Infinity War; helped beat Thanos with his uncanny command of portals in Avengers: Endgame; then inadvertently opened the Multiverse and unleashed a clutter of Spider-Men in No Way Home. All of which quietly established him as one of the MCU’s MVPs, filling the ‘goateed egomaniac’ void left by Tony Stark’s death. And while his cachet was going up in the foreground, in the background things were quietly motoring along.