The upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the MCU’s next solo outing starring the Sorcerer Supreme, just lost its director. The sequel was set to be helmed by Scott Derrickson, the director of the first one, but following creative differences with Marvel, Derrickson has decided to drop out of the project and it’s currently without a director.
A Doctor Strange movie requires a filmmaker with a strong visual style to bring Stephen Strange’s magical abilities to life, while it’s been confirmed that this movie will be the MCU’s first entry in the horror genre, so a horror-oriented director could be the best bet. Here are 10 Directors Who Could Replace Scott Derrickson.
Adam Wingard
It’s been confirmed that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will be the MCU’s first horror film, so it would make sense to recruit a horror director to bring it to the screen. Adam Wingard has been one of the freshest voices in recent horror cinema, never losing sight of the fun of scaring audiences.
You’re Next put a fresh spin on the slasher genre, The Guest’s action-driven plot showed his ability to adapt to any genre, and Blair Witch proved he can reinvent existing intellectual properties. He just finished up directing Godzilla vs. Kong for the MonsterVerse, so he now has experience working on large-scale, mega-budget blockbusters.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Scott Derrickson brought a very specific vision to the first Doctor Strange movie and defined the character’s MCU incarnation (along with Benedict Cumberbatch, of course), so it’ll be tough to find a director whose vision is just as unique and who satisfies as many fans of the Sorcerer Supreme as Derrickson did.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have always managed to satisfy fans with movies that they didn’t think they’d like, from The LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street and its sequel. It’s a shame that Disney removed them from Solo: A Star Wars Story and reshot it. Giving them the Doctor Strange job could redeem that mistake.
Kate Herron
There’s a very good chance that Kate Herron won’t have time to direct the upcoming Doctor Strange movie, since she’ll be directing all six episodes of Loki in time for 2021. Some fans have speculated that Scott Derrickson departed from the Doctor Strange sequel because its story was beholden to the events of WandaVision and Loki, two upcoming Disney+ shows that you’ll have to watch before watching the Doctor Strange movie.
This could end very badly if fans are turned off by being held captive by Marvel like this. If the movie is directly linked to Loki, bringing in the director of Loki to smooth things over might not be a bad idea.
Nia DeCosta
Having broken through with Little Woods, a neo-western crime thriller starring the MCU’s Tessa Thompson, Nia DeCosta has become one of the industry’s favorite rising stars. Jordan Peele selected her to helm the upcoming Candyman reboot, which will be hitting theaters later this year. She also worked on the British TV series Top Boy, which has quickly become a fan favorite.
DeCosta has experience working with characters in long-running serialized storylines on television and has worked in the horror genre, so she’d be a good fit for the new Doctor Strange movie, which will have horror overtones and bring together characters from a few Disney+ shows.
Morten Tyldum
After directing the breathtaking Norwegian action thriller Headhunters, Morten Tyldum caught the attention of Hollywood executives. This landed him the job of helming The Imitation Game, a critically acclaimed biopic of Alan Turing, the cryptanalyst who essentially won the Second World War. Benedict Cumberbatch played Turing, so the two have an established rapport that already worked wonders before.
Tyldum subsequently proved he can direct big-budget blockbusters with Passengers. The movie was let down by a weak script, but since Kevin Feige oversees the writing process of all the Marvel movies to ensure the writers are pushing the boat out in terms of imagination, Tyldum will surely have a great script to work from.
Ana Lily Amirpour
Ever since bursting onto the scene with A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Ana Lily Amirpour has been one of the most exciting new horror directors around. Her films tend to use minimal dialogue because she suffers from 30% hearing loss and therefore thinks more visually. This would make for an interesting change of pace in the MCU, as the dialogue-heavy franchise usually crams as many quippy one-liners into its movies as possible.
She described A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night as an “Iranian Vampire Spaghetti Western,” and described her movie The Bad Batch as “Road Warrior meets Pretty in Pink” – she has plenty of outlandish ideas that would serve her well in the next Doctor Strange movie.
Fede Álvarez
One of the sharpest eyes in mainstream horror filmmaking, Fede Álvarez would be a fantastic choice to helm Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
His 2013 Evil Dead remake showed audiences that he could recontextualize another writer’s ideas and expand upon an existing story world in interesting and satisfying ways, while his home invasion thriller Don’t Breathe took a well-worn, formulaic subgenre and provided a fresh take by making the criminals the protagonists and the man having his home burgled the antagonist. Álvarez would undoubtedly do something interesting with a scary movie following the cosmic antics of Stephen Strange.
Kevin Smith
Although he’s primarily a director of comedies, Kevin Smith is one of the world’s foremost comic book nerds. He’s been involved in a couple of superhero movies that never made it to the screen, like Tim Burton’s Superman Lives. Plus, he’s been moving into more horror-oriented territory lately, with films like Tusk and Red State.
Smith is adept at going all-out with weird subject matter – a few years ago, he directed a movie about two convenience store clerks fighting off a horde of Nazi sausages – so Doctor Strange might be just the comic book property to kickstart his blockbuster-helming days.
Ari Aster
2018’s Hereditary proved that Ari Aster was a visionary young horror director, and 2019’s Midsommar proved that he was no one-trick pony.
Aster has a lot of original projects on his plate right now – in a Reddit AMA, he said that his next film “will either be a zonky nightmare comedy or a big, sickly domestic melodrama” – and he’s also said that he’d like to take a break from the horror genre, so it seems unlikely that he would direct a horror movie based on a comic book following on from an existing movie for Marvel. But if they could get him, it could result in a terrific movie.
Guillermo del Toro
A few years ago, before Scott Derrickson brought Stephen Strange to the MCU with his initial 2016 solo movie, Guillermo del Toro pitched a Doctor Strange movie to Marvel and the studio turned it down. They can rectify that mistake now and look into bringing on del Toro to direct the new Doctor Strange movie.
He’s one of the most visionary filmmakers working today, so Marvel would be lucky to land him. He’s known for his Oscar-winning work in the horror (Crimson Peak) and dark fantasy (Pan’s Labyrinth) genres, making Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a comic book horror flick about a magical superhero, a perfect fit for his particular style.