Sam Raimi takes the reins of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s sorcerer franchise and turns it into something the series had not tried before: a horror picture wearing a cape. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness runs 126 minutes and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, and Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez. It is the sequel to Doctor Strange (2016) and the 28th film in the MCU.
The film is a fantasy, action and adventure piece by genre label, but its engine is grief. That is what makes it work, and that is what keeps it from being great.
Trailer, via Marvel Entertainment.
America Chavez and the Book of Vishanti
The plot starts in the space between universes. A demon chases America Chavez and a variant of Stephen Strange while both search for the Book of Vishanti. Strange is killed. Chavez accidentally opens a portal that carries herself and Strange’s corpse to Earth-616, where that universe’s Strange rescues her from a second demon with help from Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme.
Chavez can travel the multiverse. She cannot control it. That is the whole premise, and Waldron’s script uses it well: a teenager with a power she did not ask for, hunted by something she cannot name.
Recognizing witchcraft runes on the demon, Strange goes to Wanda Maximoff for help. He soon learns she is the one behind the attacks. After taking the Darkhold and becoming the Scarlet Witch, Wanda believes that stealing Chavez’s powers and crossing the multiverse will reunite her with Billy and Tommy, the children she created during her time in Westview.
Strange refuses to hand over Chavez. Wanda attacks Kamar-Taj, kills many sorcerers, and captures Wong.
Wanda Maximoff’s Dreamwalk
This is where the film finds its footing. Wanda uses the Darkhold to “dreamwalk,” taking control of her Earth-838 counterpart, who lives a suburban life with her own Billy and Tommy. The move is ugly and intimate at once, and Olsen plays it without flinching. She wanted Wanda’s role here to honor the events of WandaVision, and she asked for adjustments to make sure the film evolved the character instead of repeating moments from the series. That care shows.
A surviving sorceress, Sara, sacrifices herself to destroy the Darkhold and break the dreamwalk. An enraged Wanda forces Wong to lead her to Mount Wundagore, the source of the Darkhold’s power, to reestablish it. The film keeps escalating, and Raimi keeps the camera moving.
The Illuminati on Earth-838
Strange and Chavez land on Earth-838, where they are apprehended by that world’s Sorcerer Supreme, Karl Mordo, and brought before the Illuminati: Mordo, Peggy Carter, Blackagar Boltagon, Maria Rambeau, Reed Richards, and Charles Xavier.
The group explains that their universe’s reckless use of the Darkhold, in an attempt to defeat Thanos, is what went wrong. It also exists to be torn apart, and the film does not pretend otherwise. Hayley Atwell, Anson Mount and Lashana Lynch fill out the roster, and the sequence plays like a warning about reckless use of the Darkhold rather than a fight the heroes can win.
Cumberbatch carries three alternate versions of Strange across the runtime: the Earth-617 variant who dies in the opening, the former Sorcerer Supreme of Earth-838 who founded the Illuminati, and a version corrupted by the Darkhold. Waldron described Strange as being “at the height of his powers” in this film, comparing him to Indiana Jones as a hero who can “take a punch.” Raimi framed the arc differently, saying Strange starts out believing he should make every decision and has to learn to “let go a little bit” and trust others.
Both readings are in the finished film. The second one lands harder.
The Numbers
- Title: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
- Director: Sam Raimi
- Writer: Michael Waldron
- Runtime: 126 minutes
- Genres: Fantasy, Action, Adventure
- Tagline: “Enter a new dimension of Strange.”
- TMDB audience score: 7.2/10 (10,803 votes)
Production Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| October 2016 | Scott Derrickson had plans for a sequel |
| December 2018 | Derrickson signed to return; Cumberbatch confirmed |
| July 2019 | Title announced; Olsen’s involvement confirmed |
| October 2019 | Jade Halley Bartlett hired to write |
| January 2020 | Derrickson stepped down, citing creative differences |
| February 2020 | Waldron and Raimi joined and started over |
| November 2020 | Filming began in London |
| January 2021 | Production put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic |
| March 2021 | Production resumed |
That history is worth knowing, though the finished film does not announce it. Derrickson’s exit over creative differences, Waldron and Raimi starting over, the decision to add horror elements Raimi had worked with before and to make Wanda the villain: the record shows a film assembled under pressure, and in this paper’s view it mostly holds together because the pieces chosen were the right ones.
The multiverse is the setting, not the subject. What the film actually cares about is a woman who lost children she made and will burn every reality to get them back. Wanda’s turn is the strongest thing in the movie, and it is the reason the middle hour does not sag the way the Illuminati exposition threatens to.
The weaknesses are real. The film has a lot of rules to explain and not much patience for explaining them, and the Earth-838 detour spends its energy introducing characters who matter for ten minutes. Chavez gets the origin-story treatment while Strange gets the arc, and Gomez holds her own against a cast this deep, but the script does not give her enough to do beyond being the object everyone wants.
What matters here is that Marvel let a director with a horror background make a horror movie inside its biggest franchise, and then let Olsen play a villain with genuine grief behind her. That is the part worth watching. The rest is machinery.
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