The much awaited sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange arrived to in 2022. While the sequel was successful on a box office level, many fans including myself found Doctor Strange 2 to be underwhelming. I think the true culprit of the film was its marketing that promised us a mind bending rather than a simple MCU story. I mean for a film titled Multiverse of Madness, the film majorly takes place only in 3-4 universes. The other universes only popped up in the 39 second long sequence at the start of the film. The film had faced some creative differences with Scott Derrickson quitting the project as he had a much darker version in mind. Then Sam Raimi took over the reigns and gave us the film we have today. There seemed to have many drafts of the script that were ever changing, even while shooting.
With all the Fantastic Four in the MCU talk, we’re saturated with Fantastic Four news. We know all the possibilities, actors, director, etc. regarding the film. However in the midst of all these, this news will certainly catch your eye. The announcements Marvel made at the San Diego Comic Con 2022, we know that we’re definitely a Fantastic Four film in 2024. However, it seems like Marvel had plans to get them into the MCU much earlier than in 2024.
Doctor Strange 2: Why was the Fantastic Four Post Credit Scene Scrapped!
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness featured our first interaction with MCU’s Fantastic Four, well more like Fantastic One as we only got to see Mr. Fantastic- Reed Richards who was part of the Illuminati in Earth 838. However, in that film itself Mr. Fantastic was killed by Wanda and we thought that was the end of it. In the film, Reed Richards was played by John Krasinski. He was been fan casted as the character for a very longtime. However, after the film fans weren’t too impressed by his portrayal.
We know the rest, how Marvel is unsure whether to lock in Krasinski as their Mr. Fantastic or recast him. Rumors say Netflix’s Original You series star Penn Badgley is the front runner for the film. However, the idea of a new Fantastic Four after the events of Multiverse of Madness was seeded long before you realized. Michael Waldron, the writer of the film stated in a recent interview that in an earlier draft of the film, there was a Fantastic Four Post Credit Scene.
In a recent interview with Empire, Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron revealed that even in the early drafts of the script he always wanted to include Reed Richards in the film. So, even if the film didn’t have the Illuminati scene then Michael Waldron had a back-up plane to introduce the character in the MCU. The writer said, “That’s the big one, right? I always wanted Reed Richards in this thing. In my very first draft, I wrote a tag just for the hell of it, of the events of the movie being recorded and reviewed by somebody in the Baxter Building, and a stretchy hand coming into frame to run it back. Reed is probably my favorite Marvel comics characters so I was always gunning to get him in here somewhere.”
So, if Marvel hadn’t added the Illuminati Scene in the film, this would’ve been the introduction of the Fantastic Four or at least Reed Richards in the MCU. To be honest, if this would’ve happened then it would’ve been one of the best credit post scenes in the entire MCU. The Sam Raimi directed film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/the Scarlet Witch, Benedict Wong as Sorcerer Supreme Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo, Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, and Charlize Theron as Clea.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently streaming on Disney+ and has been released for 4K UHD Blu-ray and DVD.
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