HAVING been released globally as of May 6, Disney’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has already broken box office records in a matter of days.
Over the weekend, the sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange accrued US$185 million (RM810.6 million) in the U.S. and US$265 million (RM1.16 billion) internationally, for a total of $450 million (RM1.97 billion) in just a matter of days.
The overwhelming commercial success of the film makes sense considering the amount of hype that began generating as production and then marketing ramped up.
In the film that greatly expands the size and scope of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is tasked with protecting America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) who has the power to ‘jump’ through different universes from the film’s antagonist, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen).
Unlike the character’s previous heroic film appearances, Wanda’s latest outing has her squarely as a supervillain, which Olsen – in an interview with Variety – said was hard for her to accept.
“I had a hard time with it. I was like, these are human beings and Wanda is okay with ending their lives?”, the Emmy-nominated actress explained in response to how her character behaves in the film.
The shock was also shared by fans, as the character had evolved after the Disney+ series WandaVision.
The events of the aforementioned series left Wanda in a dark state of mind, which Olsen claims helped her build the performance further.
“Even if we watched her go through trauma and loss, we haven’t seen her go through the loss of the children,” Olsen said.
“I just wanted to make sure it was a constant evolution forward and not repetitive. I was trying to figure out how do we create an evolution? How do we make this different, but still part of the woman that we know?”
Due to how Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ends, and with the repercussions that it might entail, the fate of Wanda and Olsen’s involvement in the future of the MCU is currently unknown.
“It’s weird that I’m expecting to return, but no one’s told me I’m doing anything!” Olsen said, hoping she will return despite being unsure where the character could be taken.