Development Doctor Strange (2016) co-writer
C. Robert Cargill stated in April 2016 that
Marvel Studios felt some initial ideas for the film from him and director
Scott Derrickson highlighted too much of the "weird stuff" associated with the comic book character
Doctor Strange to feature in an
origin story, but told the duo to hold onto them for potential future films. Derrickson revealed in October that he had plans for a sequel, expressing his love for the character and the visual possibilities that come with him. Derrickson said the first film was "the tip of an iceberg. There's so much progress that can be made." He wanted to follow the example of the film
The Dark Knight (2008) and introduce a villain in the sequel that would allow them to "go deep [and have] a more visceral experience". Star
Benedict Cumberbatch had signed on for at least one more Doctor Strange film. Derrickson expressed interest in featuring the villain
Nightmare, and further exploring the characters
Jonathan Pangborn and
Hamir after their small roles in the first film. He explained that he had been "kept in the loop" on how the
Avengers films were using Strange due to his close relationships with
Joe Russo—the co-director of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and
Avengers: Endgame (2019)—and Marvel Studios president
Kevin Feige.
Doctor Strange co-writer
Jon Spaihts expressed interest in seeing the character
Clea appear in a sequel. In April 2017, Derrickson was reported to be returning for a sequel, beginning work after fulfilling his commitments to the television series
Locke & Key (2020–2022). By December 2018, Derrickson had quietly finalized a deal to direct the sequel, with Cumberbatch,
Benedict Wong, and
Rachel McAdams reprising their respective roles of Dr.
Stephen Strange,
Wong, and
Christine Palmer. Marvel was beginning to search for a writer, with
The Hollywood Reporter stating that the script would be written throughout 2019 for a planned filming start in early 2020 and a potential release in May 2021. Feige and Derrickson officially announced the sequel at
San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019, revealing the title to be
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and confirming a release date of May 7, 2021. Derrickson wanted the sequel to be the first scary MCU film and explore more of the gothic and horror elements from the comic books than the first installment did, with co-producer
Richie Palmer explaining that the film would use the
multiverse to explore "each definition of the word madness" and the idea that "the scariest monsters are the ones that dwell within us". Feige revealed that the
Disney+ series
WandaVision (2021) would directly set up the film, with
Elizabeth Olsen reprising her role of
Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch from the series. Additionally, the concept of the multiverse was introduced to the MCU in the
first season of
Loki (2021), and explored further in the film
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), which is set before
Multiverse of Madness and sees Cumberbatch reprising his role as Strange. After
Loki first-season finale was released,
Tom Hiddleston was reported to be reprising his role as
Loki in
Multiverse of Madness, but ultimately did not appear.
Jade Halley Bartlett, an "up-and-coming screenwriter", was hired to write the sequel's screenplay in October 2019. Barlett said she had developed the film alongside Derrickson, Feige, and other Marvel Studios executives
Louis D'Esposito,
Eric Hauserman Carroll, and Palmer for around a year, a process she felt was fun and exciting, and called the creative team scholars of the comic books. She was provided with a binder of every
Doctor Strange comic book printed for reference to aid her writing. In December, Feige described the multiverse as "the next step in the evolution of the MCU", and said this film would "crack it wide open" in a way that would have repercussions for the Disney+ series and the next films in Marvel Studios'
Phase Four slate. Later in the month, he clarified that the sequel would not be a horror film, as some reports had described it following the Comic-Con announcement, but it would be a "big MCU film with scary sequences". Feige compared these sequences to the films
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981),
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984),
Gremlins (1984), and
Poltergeist (1982), and said Derrickson was good at being "legitimately scary" due to his background making horror films. Feige also revealed that the film would introduce several surprising new characters to the MCU, including one that Marvel Studios had been looking for a way to use in an MCU film for some time; this was later revealed to be
America Chavez, who was included because her powers are related to the multiverse. Chavez's co-creator
Joe Casey was not paid for the character's appearance in the film after he rejected a compensation offer from
Marvel Comics that he described as a "pittance".
Pre-production In January 2020, Marvel Studios and Derrickson announced that he would no longer direct the film due to creative differences. In separate statements, they both said they were thankful for their collaboration so far and Derrickson would remain an executive producer on the film. This was not expected to delay filming, which was set for May 2020. Cargill explained that he and Derrickson conceived a story that went in a different direction from what Marvel wanted, and the pair had not yet written a draft of the screenplay so the final film would not be derivative of their work. Derrickson said leaving the film was a difficult decision, but he did not want to compromise on a film that was different from what he wanted to make. His choice to leave was made easier by the fact that he was able to immediately begin work on
The Black Phone (2022), another film he wanted to make. Cumberbatch was not consulted regarding the director change and said he was sad to hear about it, but he respected the decision and how it was handled. Some reports suggested that Derrickson left the film because he wanted to make a "no-holds-barred weird, gnarly, scary movie" similar to
A24's films
The Witch (2015) or
Hereditary (2018), and Marvel Studios did not want to go in that direction, but Feige denied this and said the studio loved that idea. He explained that it was their intention for the film to serve as a guide into a "much creepier side" of the MCU, even after Derrickson's departure, and they wanted to explore the "mind-bending frightening side" of the multiverse.
Sam Raimi entered negotiations to take over as director by early February. At that time,
Chiwetel Ejiofor was expected to reprise his role as
Karl Mordo, McAdams was no longer expected to appear, and
Michael Waldron was hired to rewrite the film's script after serving as the
head writer of
Loki first season. Raimi signed on to direct the film a few weeks later. He had been reluctant to direct another Marvel superhero film after the mixed critical reaction to
Spider-Man 3 (2007), feeling that he needed a break from that genre, but he accepted the job because of the challenge of getting the film into production right away and because he was a fan of the Doctor Strange character and Derrickson's work on the first film. Raimi was curious how making big-budgeted films had changed since his prior film,
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and he also had to familiarize himself with the existing MCU storylines and characters for the film. Waldron had three weeks to write a new script draft based on the work done by Derrickson and Bartlett. He said this was "almost impossible", and Raimi felt "very rushed and panicked" trying to meet the May 2020 production start date. The
COVID-19 pandemic began to impact film productions during those first three weeks, and pre-production started taking place remotely. Filming was initially still on track to begin in May 2020, until Disney shifted much of their Phase Four slate of films due to the pandemic, moving
Multiverse of Madness release date to November 5, 2021. Raimi was relieved by this delay, which allowed him and Waldron to start writing the script from scratch in a reasonable time, and make the film their own. Bartlett had written a draft before the COVID-19 pandemic and said that Raimi and Waldron's version was different from the one she developed with Derrickson. Waldron watched the director's
Spider-Man films (2002–2007) so he could identify Raimi's strengths and write toward them. He described
Multiverse of Madness as Raimi's return to "big superhero movies", and said it would have every aspect of a Sam Raimi film, including a "slightly scarier direction" which he felt Raimi had a strong track record with. Palmer said Waldron's work introducing the multiverse in
Loki allowed Marvel Studios to "jump into telling a good story" without having to re-explain those ideas for the audience, and helped bring "a lot of heart to [the science fiction] concepts". Waldron also used his experience from writing the series
Rick and Morty (2013–present), which helped him "introduce these big sci-fi concepts in ways that were digestible, palatable to the audience and without getting them bogged down in the boring details". Rather than just expanding the stakes of the film, Waldron saw the multiverse as the "emotional heart" of the story that could be used in personal ways, such as using "
what ifs" and alternate versions of characters to reflect on the film's protagonists, and exploring the characters' right or wrong choices through their alternate versions. Waldron watched
Doctor Strange several times, saying he became a "student" of that film, to understand Strange's story in the original. He also looked at how the character had developed through his other MCU appearances, and Raimi praised how Waldron's imagination and knowledge of Marvel history contributed to the script. The creative team saw early production work for the Disney+ animated series
What If...? (2021–2024) to learn how Strange was portrayed in that series. Waldron described Wanda as "the biggest best bullet" that they had, and said she was destined to become a villain in the MCU, as she did in the comics, especially after the end of
WandaVision revealed "to her that the family she's built is not real. Then she gets the
Darkhold... and learns that there is a real version of her children out there. And if you've got the Book of the Damned whispering in your ear long enough that your kids are out there and you could go get 'em, maybe that can push you to do some terrible things." If she became a villain at the end of the film, he knew another project would get to have the "fun" of using her as a villain. He also wanted to avoid the film getting "overstuffed" by adding a different multiverse-related villain such as
Jonathan Majors's
Kang the Conqueror, and felt that this would create a "watered-down version of Wanda [who] wouldn't be the protagonist, and she wouldn't really be the antagonist". Olsen was hesitant about playing the villain after believing that she would just be "in an ensemble thing", but she came to feel that the combination of
WandaVision and
Multiverse of Madness allowed her to create a sympathetic character in the series who the audience would therefore have conflicted feelings about when seeing the film. Waldron worked closely with Olsen and
WandaVision head writer
Jac Schaeffer to ensure Wanda's story was a satisfying continuation of the series, which Waldron read the scripts for and watched in its entirety while writing the script. He wanted to mirror Wanda's struggles with control following the events of that series with Strange's own need for control following
Infinity War and
Endgame. Raimi also studied the series despite not fully seeing it, particularly key moments that directly impacted their plans for the film, to make sure the film maintained "a proper through line and character-growth dynamic" for her character. It was important to Olsen that the film not repeat what was done in
WandaVision and instead be an evolution of the character, and she requested several adjustments to the script to avoid moments that she found too similar to the series. To justify the many killings that Wanda commits in the film, Olsen focused on the character's perspective of those people being in her way and not listening to her after the loss of her children in the series. After a planned appearance by Cumberbatch in
WandaVision was removed late in the development of the series, rewrites to the
Multiverse of Madness script were required which Feige described as a "wonderful combination of very dedicated coordination, and chaos". These changes include how Strange and Wanda meet in the film. The story of
Multiverse of Madness is still set up by
WandaVision, but the film was developed to also work for viewers who did not watch the series. For consistency with the
Darkhold appearance, the film's props department designed the prop that was used for
WandaVision and then reused it for the film. While writing his first draft, Waldron felt the film needed to "get drunk [and] find the madness in the multiverse" by introducing alternate universe versions of known Marvel characters. This led to the introduction of the
Illuminati, a
secret society from the comics. Waldron had been watching the film
Aliens (1986) as inspiration for the script's thriller tone, and enjoyed how the "badass" space marines "just get slaughtered" by the titular aliens to set the latter up as scarier villains for the rest of that film. He wanted to do something similar with Wanda by introducing the Illuminati as a group of characters that fans would be excited to see and then have Wanda kill them all. The idea of Strange taking control of a dead body for the end of the film came from Waldron and Palmer discussing how he would be able to confront Wanda from a different universe, with the corpse of another version of Strange having been already established at the start of the film. Raimi, Feige, and Cumberbatch were all excited about the idea, despite Raimi initially wanting to avoid a
zombie sequence to not repeat what he had done previously with zombie films. The film's release was shifted again at the end of April 2020, this time to March 25, 2022, after
Sony Pictures rescheduled
No Way Home to the November 2021 date. Until then, Waldron had been writing the script expecting
Multiverse of Madness to be released before
No Way Home. He was in contact with
No Way Home writers
Chris McKenna and
Erik Sommers throughout the writing process, and after the release date change they adjusted their respective scripts so instead of
Multiverse of Madness "blowing the lid on the multiverse" it would pick up after
No Way Home with Strange already having multiverse experience. This change had a "knock-down effect" on the rest of the script. There had been early plans to include Strange's new costume from
Multiverse of Madness and America Chavez in
No Way Home, while a brief cameo of
Peter Parker / Spider-Man was planned for
Multiverse of Madness, but the pandemic ultimately prevented those plans from coming to fruition. Raimi noted that where
No Way Home saw characters from other universes enter the MCU,
Multiverse of Madness features characters from the MCU entering the multiverse and exploring different universes. Ejiofor confirmed his involvement in June, and
Xochitl Gomez joined the cast in October. Cumberbatch revealed that month that filming would start in London by the beginning of November, with the production not impacted by a national lockdown in England that was set for November 5 to December 2
due to increased COVID-19 cases.
Filming Principal photography began in November 2020 in London, under the
working title Stellar Vortex. Filming was delayed from an initial May 2020 start date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Olsen began filming her scenes by November 25, shooting
back-to-back with
WandaVision, and found it odd to transition from the series back to starring in an MCU film. At the beginning of December, filming was taking place at
Longcross Studios in
Longcross, Surrey, where several New York City blocks and sets for the Sanctum Sanctorum were built by production designer Charlie Woods. McAdams soon signed on to return as Palmer, shortly before Feige officially confirmed her involvement on December 10 along with that of Ejiofor, Wong, and Gomez. He also revealed that Gomez would portray America Chavez. Cumberbatch had begun filming his scenes by then, after completing his work on
No Way Home. He said the film was more collaborative than his previous MCU appearances, for which he felt like he was "just along for the ride". Many of the actors, including Olsen, Cumberbatch, and Wong, were excited to be working with Raimi. The director said many "dimensionalized visuals" were used during shooting to tell the film's story, as he was able to use his preferred camera techniques such as using the camera and perspective to create a feeling of anxiety for audiences.
John Mathieson served as cinematographer, and shot the film with
Panavision DXL2 IMAX-certified cameras. Raimi encouraged improvisation, explaining that the cast could adapt their interactions due to their knowledge of their own characters and that the script often changed shortly before filming for those scenes began. The ending of the film was still "up in the air" when filming began, and Cumberbatch said it took some time for the team to decide on one that tied together all of the characters' stories. Waldron explained that they felt the ending was too happy following all the "bad shit" that occurs in the film and wanted to show that Strange would suffer consequences for his actions—including possessing the corpse of a different version of himself—which tied into Mordo's warning from the first film: "The bill comes due." This led to them adding the ending scene where Strange develops a third eye in his forehead, and Waldron felt this was the sort of twist that horror films often end on. Elaborating on that tone, Olsen said they were going for a "horror show vibe", comparing it to Raimi's
Evil Dead films with aspects of the horror genre such as "constant fear". She felt it was "more than a glossy
Indiana Jones movie" and would be darker than those films, with Raimi trying to make "the scariest Marvel movie" and create "as much tension for the audience" as possible. Olsen shot for three weeks before pandemic restrictions increased near the end of December due to a
surge of COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom, with another lockdown in England announced from January 6, 2021. The scenes of Scarlet Witch massacring the Illuminati were shot at the
British Museum of London, with Marvel using
CGI to add a new room with a glass entrance and a few statues for the background. Filming resumed in early 2021, and at some point, Cumberbatch had to temporarily pause filming after being in close contact with a member of the production who had a false positive test. In mid-March, Cumberbatch said they were in the middle of production, and Ejiofor had begun filming his scenes in London by then. Filming occurred at Broomfield Hill Car Park in
Richmond Park for the week of March 25. Shooting took place at
Freemasons' Hall, London, for a few weeks in April. On April 15, Feige said they were in the final week of filming, with shooting taking place from that day until April 17 at
Burrow Hill Cider Farm in Somerset.
Jett Klyne and
Julian Hilliard, who respectively portrayed Wanda's sons
Tommy and
Billy in
WandaVision, were reportedly on set at the farm, and were confirmed to be in the film in April 2022.
Post-production Bob Murawski and
Tia Nolan co-edited the film. Some additional photography had been completed by mid-September 2021, with Olsen and Wong completing their work. The film was once again delayed in October, this time to May 6, 2022. Later that month, Cumberbatch said they were in the middle of more additional photography, with further reshoots set for November and December, over at least six weeks in Los Angeles.
The Hollywood Reporter said this photography was "significant" and included two weeks dedicated to filming that could not be completed during principal photography because of actor availability issues and COVID-related slowdowns. Cumberbatch confirmed the reshoots were being used to make adjustments to already shot material, while also filming parts that "were just impossible to do [during principal photography] because of logistics, COVID etc".
The Hollywood Reporter later reported that the reshoots would allow the film to have "more fun with the multiverse" by adding more cameo appearances and variants of established characters, similar to
No Way Home and the first season of
Loki. Waldron created a fourth multiverse world for the film to shoot during the reshoots, which ultimately did not appear in the film. The film's teaser trailer was released in late December and confirmed the involvement of
Michael Stuhlbarg as
Nicodemus West, reprising his role from
Doctor Strange. It also revealed that Cumberbatch would portray multiple versions of Strange in the film. The reshoots reportedly
wrapped during the week of December 13, but additional filming continued in early January 2022. The latter was completed on January 8. By the end of the month, Raimi had assembled a cut of the film that would be presented to test audiences, and said there was potential for more reshoots to occur if the test screenings found that clarification or improvement were needed; Cumberbatch was working on further reshoots in the United Kingdom by March 13.
Patrick Stewart, who portrayed
Charles Xavier / Professor X in
20th Century Fox's
X-Men film series, was revealed to be appearing in the film in an undisclosed role with the release of the full trailer in February 2022; Stewart was believed to be reprising the role of Xavier, which had previously been the subject of speculation. A poster for the film, released at the same time, additionally teased the inclusion of
Peggy Carter / Captain Carter, a character who was introduced in
What If...?. Stewart initially denied that he was in the film, but soon admitted that he was. The trailer also revealed that Topo Wresniwiro would reprise his role of
Hamir from
Doctor Strange. A creature resembling prominent Doctor Strange villain
Shuma-Gorath appears in the film, but it is given the name
Gargantos, which comes from a different comic book character, because the rights to the name Shuma-Gorath belong to
Heroic Signatures. Gargantos' eye was modeled after that of Olsen's to foreshadow her role as the film's antagonist. The cosmic entity the
Living Tribunal also makes a brief appearance. Discussing Stewart's involvement, as well as assumptions based on the trailer that the Illuminati would be appearing in the film, Palmer said returning actors would not necessarily be portraying characters that had been seen before, and if Marvel Studios were to introduce the Illuminati they would do a "more MCU-driven" version of the group. The Illuminati's appearance was officially confirmed in March; and the team features actors portraying new versions of their characters from previous projects: Stewart plays a
new version of Xavier that combines elements from his previous performances, including a line of dialogue from the film
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), with elements from
X-Men: The Animated Series (1992–1997); Ejiofor plays a new version of Mordo;
Hayley Atwell portrays Captain Carter after voicing the
What If...? version;
Lashana Lynch plays a different version of
Maria Rambeau / Captain Marvel from the one she portrayed in the MCU film
Captain Marvel (2019); and
Anson Mount portrays an alternate version of
Blackagar Boltagon / Black Bolt from his role in
Marvel's ABC television series Inhumans (2017). Also in the group is
John Krasinski as
Fantastic Four member
Reed Richards. Krasinski had been a popular suggestion for the role by fans for some time, especially since the announcement of a
new Fantastic Four film set in the MCU. Mount was unexpectedly called by Feige and reached out by Raimi to reprise his role as Black Bolt, which he was grateful and honored to do due to his joy at working with the latter. When Lynch was approached to return, she assumed she would be playing an ancestor of Rambeau and was surprised to learn she would be an alternate version of Captain Marvel. Atwell didn't like how her character felt so undermined with her death being played off as a joke, so she approached a filmmaker with feedback for an alternative way to approach the scene, to whom her suggestions didn't sit well told her to comment that to Murawski before eventually diffusing the confrontation by jokingly telling her he was "
bullying her". The Illuminati sequence was filmed in pieces, with many of the actors not being on set together. Krasinski's footage was filmed during reshoots to replace a planned cameo appearance by
Daniel Craig, who chose not to film the role because he did not believe a single day of filming was worth the risk of catching COVID-19 and spreading it to his family. Craig was reportedly set to portray the character
Balder the Brave in the scene. Olsen did not meet Krasinski while shooting the scene in which Scarlet Witch kills Richards, and she instead filmed the scene with a
stand-in. Mount filmed his scenes during reshoots while Stewart filmed his scenes as
Jean-Luc Picard for the
Paramount+ series
Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023), without the presence of Ejiofor and before Krasinski's contract was signed, with other actors filling for the roles, substituting their shots and transplanting faces. Due to safety protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Stewart and other leading actors filmed their scenes in isolation without other actors present, which he found to be frustrating and disappointing. Waldron said the final line-up of the Illuminati was similar to the one in his first draft, but with some other suggestions coming from Feige. Waldron considered including
Namor, a member of the Illuminati in the comics, but Marvel Studios did not allow the character to appear in any MCU projects at
Ryan Coogler's request before the film
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), in which he was played by
Tenoch Huerta Mejía; Waldron's first draft also included an Earth-838 counterpart of
Evangeline Lilly's
Hope van Dyne / Wasp as a member of the Illuminati, who would have been killed by Wanda clapping her hands to kill her.
Storyboards by artist Soren Bendt for the Illuminati massacre scene suggest that, in addition to Balder the Brave, an Earth-838 counterpart of
Obadiah Stane / Iron Monger, who was previously portrayed by
Jeff Bridges in the first MCU film
Iron Man (2008), was also considered for the group's lineup. There were also rumors that
Tom Cruise would be portraying an alternate version of
Tony Stark / Iron Man known as
Superior Iron Man in the film after being in contention for the role back in the 1990s before
Robert Downey Jr. was cast as the
title character in 2006. Waldron expressed interest in the idea, but Cruise was never approached due to his filming schedule for the films
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) and
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025). Other rumors about potential cameos included an appearance of
Ryan Reynolds reprising his role as
Wade Wilson / Deadpool from the Fox films
Deadpool (2016) and
Deadpool 2 (2018); Waldron confirmed there had been discussions about bringing Reynolds in to play Deadpool before they decided that the film was not "the right place" to feature him. Another character introduced in the film is Clea, with
Charlize Theron cast in the role. Waldron said they wanted to include her in the film but felt they needed to resolve Strange's relationship with Christine Palmer first, so the character's introduction was saved for the
mid-credits scene to set her up as a potential new love interest in a future story.
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM),
Digital Domain,
Framestore,
Luma Pictures, Capital T,
Sony Pictures Imageworks,
Wētā FX,
Trixter, Crafty Apes, and
Perception worked on the visual effects of the film, in which an estimated 2,000 VFX shots were created. Framestore worked on the multiverse jumping sequence with Strange and Chavez, while Luma Pictures worked on the Gargantos fight scene. Perception also designed the film's main-on-end title sequence, which employs colorful
Rorschach test visuals because Raimi wanted the sequence to "both complement and contrast the film". Animators from
Disney worked to create another version of the
Walt Disney Productions film
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), with a different color palette, for a scene in
Multiverse of Madness. Graham Churchyard served as costume designer and created most of the costumes for the film, except for those worn by Black Bolt and Richards, both of which could not be completed in time due to
travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. They were created through visual effects instead. In late August 2022, Waldron revealed that one of the first drafts of the film's script included a post-credits scene involving a seemingly alive Richards, but the idea was scrapped. Another draft of the script included a scene of Strange meeting a variant of himself named Melvin, who would have been depicted as a
street magician with no mystical abilities. Gomez noted that Marvel asked for numerous rewrites of the script from Waldron. == Music ==