If all had gone according to plan, Loki head writer Michael Waldron would have been on set for the duration of the highly anticipated Marvel TV show’s production. But as fate would have it, Waldron found himself tied up in a different Marvel Studios project just as he and the Loki writers room finished writing the show’s six-episode first season.
Waldron got his start in the business as a production assistant on NBC’s Community, after which he continued working with Dan Harmon on projects like HarmonQuest and Rick and Morty. He eventually came to Marvel Studios’ attention, as they hired Waldron to serve as the head writer for a Disney+ series following Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, and Marvel was so happy with Waldron’s work on that show that they then immediately offered him a dream job: writing a superhero movie for director Sam Raimi.
Indeed, when Marvel made the decision to redevelop Doctor Strange 2 following director Scott Derrickson’s exit, they wanted a new writer to take a crack at the screenplay. And during an exclusive, extended interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Waldron revealed that he was offered the Doctor Strange 2 job just as he was leaving a meeting with Owen Wilson for his role in Loki:
“I met Owen Wilson, because he was going to play Mobius [on Loki] which was a dream for me. For a guy my age, Owen Wilson is a hero of mine. I was leaving a meeting with Owen Wilson and Kevin called me and let me know what they were doing on Doctor Strange and that they were turning over the creative there and he wanted me to come on as the writer. And so, it was kind of as simple as that.”
Waldron was actually about to follow Loki into production when he was offered the opportunity to write Doctor Strange 2:
“By that time, I had been able to build the trust. We'd written Loki and Loki was in good shape at that point. It was headed into production. I was getting ready to go to Atlanta. Fortunately, the scripts were in good shape. One of our writers, a close friend of mine, Eric Martin, took my place and went and was the writer on set, which you've got to have, and he did amazing work carrying the show across the finish line, from a writing standpoint. And yeah, it was just, ‘All right. You did Loki. That was crazy. Come do Doctor Strange. This is going to be crazy, too.’ And that was really fun.”
This all happened in February of 2020, and Doctor Strange 2 was barreling towards a May 2020 production start date. But just as Raimi signed on to take over as director, the pandemic hit and they were given much more time to write the screenplay, for which Waldron says they started from scratch:
“At the time, that was February of last year, we were supposed to start shooting in May and it was an accelerated time table. Obviously, COVID stopped that and they brought on Sam. Sam and I came on at the same time. The one benefit of the shutdown was Sam and I got to start from scratch and really figure out what we wanted the movie to be, and I got to spend a year making a movie with Sam Raimi. I was in London for the last four months on that movie.”
We know that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness brings back Benedict Cumberbatch and we also know it co-stars Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch. Indeed, Doctor Strange 2 follows the events of WandaVision, and Waldron says he was able to read scripts and see early cuts of the episodes as he was writing the Doctor Strange sequel:
“We had access to the scripts and then to cuts [of WandaVision]. I became good friends with Jac Schaeffer, head writer of WandaVision, while I was writing Loki. Her and I became good pals, because we were kind of in it together and everything. She's great and brilliant and just somebody I really admired. It was nice to know somebody that we could commiserate together over our crazy jobs.”
Waldron says he also worked closely with Schaeffer and Olsen to ensure that they were honoring Wanda’s emotional journey from that TV show to this feature film sequel:
“I had the benefit of just being able to call Jac and talk to her about Wanda's character and everything, because it was really important to me that I do right by her with what she did with Wanda as a character. And also, with Lizzie, who's a friend of mine. I really worked with her and made sure, ‘Okay, you guys just did this incredibly intimate show about this character that grew her so much. Let's make sure that we're doing that justice and telling a fulfilling next chapter of that story.’”
Look for more from our interview with Waldron on Collider soon. Loki premieres on Disney+ on Wednesday, June 9th.