In a new interview, Sam Raimi casually confirmed that he’s directing Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Speaking to ComingSoon and other oulets about his new Quibi series, 50 States of Fright, Raimi was asked about putting a Doctor Strange reference in Spider-Man 2 and then being attached to helm a Doctor Strange film all these years later.

For those who don’t recall, there’s a scene in Spider-Man 2 where the Daily Bugle’s J. Jonah Jameson and Ted Hoffman riff on supervillain names for Otto Octavius and pass on using Doctor Strange since it’s already taken.

[ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/14/what-is-doctor-strange-2s-multiverse-of-madness]

Raimi also spoke of his love of the character of Doctor Strange, a superhero he only ranked, though, “at number five” among his picks for the best comic characters.

“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,” Raimi said, before going on to confirm his involvement with the Doctor Strange sequel.

“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.”

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=marvel-phase-4-official-lineup&captions=true”]

Raimi being considered to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was confirmed by the project’s original director, Scott Derrickson, in a social media post wishing Raimi well with the film, but this is Raimi’s first direct confirmation that he’s directing the sequel.

For more on Raimi and the Doctor Strange sequel, check out this theory on how Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man could appear in Raimi’s Multiverse of Madness.

Source: IGN.com Sam Raimi Confirms He's Directing Doctor Strange 2