Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron has revealed some of his inspirations for the upcoming sequel, and they might not be what you’d expect.
He told Vanity Fair that the late chef and traveller Anthony Bourdain and the fictional adventurer Indiana Jones were two of his inspirations for the sequel. Stephen Strange and Bourdain are obviously very different in a lot of ways, but Bourdain had an “intense intellect” not unlike Strange, Waldron said.
“I gravitated toward Anthony Bourdain,” Waldron said. “Strange is an elitist as a neurosurgeon and a sorcerer. Anthony Bourdain was a man of the people, but there was that intense intellect. You always felt like he could eviscerate anybody with his words at any time. But yet, Anthony Bourdain never really punched down. That was the first ingredient in the stew for Doctor Strange.
“Anthony Bourdain had been everywhere, seen everything,” he added. “What surprises you at this point? I think for all of the heroes in the MCU, in a post-Endgame world, how do you rally yourself to fight the stand-alone movie villains after you fought Thanos?”
Waldron was also inspired by Indiana Jones. For Waldron’s money, Doctor Strange is basically “Indiana Jones in a cloak.”
“He’s a hero who can take a punch,” Waldron said. “That’s what made those Harrison Ford heroes so great. Those guys get their asses kicked. Look at Stephen Strange in the first movie. He’s really getting beat up but he’s very capable and everything.”
Waldron’s friend, Rick and Morty’s Jeff Loveness, remarked that Waldron wanted to write a “really great Indiana Jones-esque blockbuster,” and that’s what he said he achieved with In the Multiverse of Madness.
What’s more, Waldron spoke about the pressure he feels to give Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff a good story in the Doctor Strange sequel. “I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t gonna let my friend down,” he said of WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer. “I can’t sh** the bed because she did such a great job. So we had a lot of conversations. Getting to continue Wanda’s story was amazing.”
In other news, Waldron also recently said that In the Multiverse of Madness is “visually thrilling” and will be “unlike anything you’ve seen in the MCU before.”
In the Multiverse of Madness comes to theaters in 2022. It’s directed by Spider-Man’s Sam Raimi, who took over for Scott Derrickson after he dropped out due to creative differences.
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