The Multiverse is a strange and wondrous place. So far, nine episodes of Wandavision, six episodes of the Loki show, nine episodes of What If…?, and Spider-Man: No Way Home have hinted at the infinite possibilities of variants and the fragility of our reality. On May 6th, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters and will take fans on a mind-bending trip into multiple dimensions.
We have known for a while that Doctor Strange 2’s runtime lands around two hours and six minutes. It seems a bit short to me, especially when compared to No Way Home‘s two hours and twenty-eight minutes, considering the Strange sequel also has a ton of multiversal shenanigans and characters to pack into its runtime. But what are you going to do?
But wait, in an interview with Collider, director Sam Raimi revealed the original cut’s runtime was around two hours and forty minutes!
But I want more!
The longer movie cut makes sense, as Marvel has been building to this point for over a year. Just going off of all the things hinted at in the trailers, I’m not sure how they will cover everything in about two hours. From the trailer, they confirmed zombie variants, the Illuminati (which has not been touched on in the MCU so far), Captain Carter, X-Men’s Professor Charles Xavier, and America Chavez—not to mention the laundry list of potential and rumored cameos. It is a lot to pack in.
During the interview, Raimi continued by saying they deleted scenes and reshot scenes. Through the editing process, they whittled it down to the current length. However, he is confident Marvel will release a few of the deleted scenes when the movie makes its way to home release.
I am a proponent of longer movies if the material warrants it (the Lord of the Rings extended cuts could have been longer). Movies used to have intermissions! Let’s bring that back, and then we can have more Scarlet Witch screen time. However, I will trust Sam Raimi and Marvel on this one … for now.
(featured image: Disney/Marvel)
