According to Collider, The Turning scribe Jade Bartlett has been tapped to pen the screenplay for Marvel Studios‘ highly-anticipated sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is set to debut on May 7, 2021. However, it is not yet clear if director Scott Derrickson, who wrote the first film with C. Robert Cargill and Jon Spaihts, will also be co-writing the script with Bartlett or not.
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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is being described as the first horror film in the MCU with Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch returning as the titular sorcerer supreme and Elizabeth Olsen also appearing as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, with Olsen’s forthcoming Disney+ series WandaVision set to directly impact the events of the Doctor Strange sequel.
Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch recently appeared in this year’s highest grossing film of all time, Avengers: Endgame, where they were both last seen attending Tony Stark’s funeral.
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The first Doctor Strange movie was released in 2016 with Benedict Cumberbatch starring in the titular role. Joining him in the film were Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo, Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, and Michael Stuhlbarg as Nicodemus West. It also featured the MCU debut of critical characters from the pages of Marvel Comics, including Benedict Wong as Wong, plus Mads Mikkelsen as villain Kaecilius, and Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One (who is of Celtic origin in the film instead of East Asian origin). Doctor Strange was directed by Scott Derrickson, whose previous credits were primarily horror films like The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister, and Deliver Us from Evil, though he also brought us the modern remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still in 2008.
