Sam Raimi Regrets Not Using a Marvel Villain

Sam Raimi has confessed that he regrets not having used a Marvel villain and talks about the challenge of shooting Doctor Strange and the multiverse of madness
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Sam Raimi has opened up about the ups and downs of his career and the joys and challenges of returning to the Marvel universe with the upcoming Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness .

In the interview, among other things, he revealed what he missed most about the Spider-Man movie that never existed: “the great cameo that we had designed for Bruce Campbell” .

Campbell, who has worked with Raimi on Evil Dead (1981) and Evil Dead 2 (1987) , previously appeared (albeit briefly) in all three of the filmmaker’s Spider-Man movies alongside franchise star Tobey Maguire. Raimi discussed his plans to give Campbell a narrative upgrade in the fourth installment, confirming rumors that he would be taking on the role of the iconic villain Mystery . Character played by Jake Gyllenhaal in 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home .

“That was one of the possibilities ,” Raimi said. “We also had other things in mind, but that was one of them.”

Following the release of Spider-Man 3, Raimi had been working on the fourth installment. However, the film was canceled due to production delays and numerous changes to the script. Which led to a wall-crawler reboot with Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/ Spider-man .

During the interview, Raimi also confessed that he “missed” the opportunity to explore Kraven the Hunter, the son of a Russian aristocrat who becomes a great hunter. Known as one of the wall-crawler’s most formidable foes. Sony is currently in the middle of filming with the villain starring in his own film, directed by JC Chandor, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass) in the role of Kraven.

“We were going to turn that character into the next Spider-Man; I always wanted to see Kraven fight Spider-Man on the big screen. I thought he would be really unique. He is the greatest hunter and Spider-Man is like the most agile trickster in the skies, ” Raimi said.

Beyond his lamentations with Spider-Man, Raimi spoke about those Doctor Strange reshoots and how the script created one of the biggest challenges for his return to Marvel.

Speaking about the reshoots, the director explained that it was mainly about adjusting the story after test screenings to help the audience understand what’s happening on screen physically or conceptually.

“There are a lot of points where the audience says, ‘I don’t get this. I don’t understand this concept. Or, ‘I’m aware of this concept, and then you explained it again in the third act.’ ‘Oh, you’re right. The public already knows. Or: ‘They had to know that to accept the next story beat,’” Raimi explained. “A lot of this is test projections, learning what’s confusing in a complex image like this, or learning things that have stuck around longer than expected.”

He went on to say that it’s also about recognizing when the pace of the story is too slow and when the audience doesn’t need something, “even if it’s an appropriate pace to put on.”

“They can figure it out for themselves, so what seemed like a logical step now becomes, in the editing process, ‘Hmm. That is holding us back. Let’s gloss over it and let the public make the leap for themselves ,’” Raimi continued. “But it’s also about acknowledging what they really like and sometimes expanding on those things that they’re really reacting well to. It is recognizing what is original about the image and, when you have the opportunity, amplifying it”.

While that might have seemed like the most challenging part of the film’s process, Raimi said he was “in the middle [of filming] and not knowing what the end was.”

“Michael is trying to stay a couple of days ahead of us with the next page that comes out of his computer printer, and it’s hard because you want to make sure that everything is supporting the whole, that the themes are presented in the picture.” , he continued. “But when you don’t know everything about the image, it’s hard to do that job as effectively as possible.”

Reasons to watch Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness

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In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness from Marvel Studios, the Marvel Cinematic Universe opens the gates of the Multiverse and expands its boundaries like never before. He journeys into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to face a mysterious new adversary.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stars Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog,” “The Imitation Game”), Chiwetel Ejiofor (“Infinite,” “Confined”), Elizabeth Olsen (“Scarlet Witch”) and Vision», “Avengers: Endgame” by Marvel Studios), Benedict Wong (“Lethal Class”, “Gemini”), Xochitl Gomez (“The Kangaroo Club”, “Roped”), Sheila Atim (“Wound”, “The Underground Railroad”), Adam Hugill (“The Guard”, “1917”), with Michael Stühlbarg (“A Serious Guy”, “Call Me By Your Name”) and Rachel McAdams (“Midnight in Paris”, “Sherlock Holmes ”).

The film is directed by Sam Raimi and Kevin Feige is the producer. Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Eric Hauserman Carroll, Scott Derrickson and Jamie Christopher serve as executive producers, with Mitch Bell and Richie Palmer serving as co-producers. The script is the work of Michael Waldron, who most recently served as head writer and executive producer on Marvel Studios’ “Loki” series for Disney+.

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness from Marvel Studios opens in theaters on May 6.