Scott Derrickson vacated the directors chair of Doctor Strange 2 due to creative differences with Marvel. This can be interpreted a couple of ways because directors have walked away from Marvel films in the past. Some of those movies turned out to be really good movies while other films turned out to be Thor 2. A interesting news piece that circulated the web was that director Sam Raimi was in discussions to helm the MCU sequel for Doctor Strange after the departure of Derrickson.

Now, Comicbook.com is reporting the following quote as confirmation that the deal is done:

“I loved Doctor Strange as a kid, but he was always after Spider-Man and Batman for me, he was probably at number five for me of great comic book characters,” the director explained. “He was so original, but when we had that moment in Spider-Man 2 I had no idea that we would ever be making a Doctor Strange movie, so it was really funny to me that coincidentally that line was in the movie.

“I gotta say I wish we had the foresight to know that I was going to be involved in the project,” he concluded.

That’s a pretty conclusive statement and ends speculation on a director. The obvious question for me is if we’ll get the beloved Sam Raimi tone in these films. I’d love to see Ted Raimi or a cameo from J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson with a cool chainsaw scene or two.

Sam Raimi returning to superhero films is like former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy getting hired to coach the Brooklyn Nets. I like this pairing and see nothing but great things in the future of Doctor Strange. What are your thoughts? Are you excited for the Multiverse of Madness?