Far too often, comic book movie sequels end up overstuffed and overcrowded, with the sheer litany of characters taking attention away from the central hero. Well, this is apparently something that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness star Benedict Cumberbatch has some concerns about when it comes to his MCU return, with the actor being asked whether, with the inclusion of Elizabeth Olsen and Xochitl Gomez, Doctor Strange 2 is still his movie...

"Yeah. Well...yeah that's part of the problem. There's a lot of stuff going on in it. It's like, do I have a character arc in this? Is it working?"

Details surrounding Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness remain a closely guarded Marvel mystery at present, but what we do know is that the story will involve the likes of Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff AKA Scarlet Witch, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo, Benedict Wong as Wong, Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, and the debut of Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez alongside Cumberbatch’s return as The Sorcerer Supreme. With so many characters in play, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness easily runs the risk of becoming too busy for its own good. Thankfully, Cumberbatch seemingly walked back some of his concerns, declaring that the busy nature of the movie is actually a positive, before going on to describe the MCU sequel as “bonkers.”

"No, there's great stuff for me to do. It's very busy. It's called The Multiverse of Madness, and it's bonkers."

Directed by renowned filmmaker Sam Raimi from a script written by Jade Bartlett and Michael Waldron, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will further explore the multiverse that was unleashed thanks to Loki in his self-titled Disney+ series. Any potential issues Cumberbatch has with the sequel’s stacked cast of characters can’t be all bad, with the actor recently revealing that he would be interested in reprising the role of the Master of the Mystic Arts for the foreseeable future. "As long as the character is interesting and challenging and doing fantastic things in the MCU, why not?" Cumberbatch said when asked if he would return after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Benedict Cumberbatch will first reprise the role of Doctor Strange in the further adventures of Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Directed by Jon Watts, and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, the sequel finds Peter Parker asking Doctor Strange to help make his identity as Spider-Man a secret following its public revelation, which quickly leads to the multiverse being unleashed. This causes several versions of previous Spider-Man villains to enter the MCU, with the web-slinger and The Sorcerer Supreme having to work together to send them back.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is scheduled to be released later on this month, with the beloved web-slinger's highly anticipated adventure due to hit screens on December 17, 2021, with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness following on a little later on March 25, 2022, both as part of Phase Four of the MCU. This comes to us courtesy of WTF Podcast.