While only about 20 minutes of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was screened for press prior to doing junket interviews, making it challenging to talk about the film and likely an effort to keep as many of the reveals a secret as possible, the cast and creative team did assemble for a virtual conference to give hints and teases that fans of the MCU can expect from this latest installment. Unlocking the multiverse not only pushes boundaries further than ever before, but it means that the characters will also have to face alternate realities and other versions of themselves that are sure to present a head trip of self-therapy in epic proportions.

During this press conference, co-stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, and MCU newcomer Xochitl Gomez were joined by director Sam Raimi, screenwriter Michael Waldron and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, to talk about the reteaming of Feige and Raimi, the challenge of making a film of this size with an ever-changing script, the evolution of Dr. Stephen Strange as a character, Wanda’s emotional journey, moving Wong away from the original source material, bringing youth and vibrancy to the MCU with the addition of America Chavez, expanding the magic, and more.

Question: Kevin, this is such a full-circle moment for you. In 2002, you were just a young junior producer starting out on Spider-Man, and now here you are with The Multiverse of Madness. What’s it like coming to this 20-year moment?

KEVIN FEIGE: It’s surreal, and particularly surreal that it’s full circle with Mr. [Sam] Raimi. I was a young producer who just felt lucky to be in the same room with him. Now, I’m an old producer that just feels lucky to be in the same room with him.

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Image via Marvel Studios

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Sam, you’re considered by many to be the godfather of modern superhero filmmaking. Knowing the challenges that this movie put you guys under, as far as the script and the timing and the schedule, you might have been the only director that could actually pull this off. What was that like to take on?

SAM RAIMI: There were really a lot of Marvel movies being made when we made the Spider-Man movies. Kevin was also working on the X-Men movies and the Iron Man movies. Kevin and his boss, Avi Arad, were already developing the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even back then. So, I was very fortunate to get that directing job. I love Spider-Man. I’m glad I had a moment in helping be one of the first MCU movies.

Coming back to it now, the movie-making has changed so much. What was the big thing, coming back to the movie-making of the MCU, that you were interested in exploring, but that you didn’t get to explore because of limitations back in 2002?

RAIMI: The technology has changed and it’s just become a lot easier, but the technological difference that really enabled me to work on this movie so effectively was Zoom, modern telecommunication system. I could speak to tens of crew members at once. We could show a storyboard from an artist. The editor could bring up a piece of the cut. We really had great communication that was audio and visual, and you were able to speak to a hundred people at once. It was fantastic. But as far as the most important thing that changed, the thing that didn’t change is that the most important thing is having great actors and them knowing that the most important thing they can do is recognize the humanity within themselves.

That’s how people connect to our superheroes, and these great actors know what it’s like to be a human being. They’ve got a vast set of experiences that they’re not afraid to pull into their performances, and they also know their characters very well. [Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen and Benedict Wong] have played their characters for so many years now, in so many important Marvel movies. It’s great to see the knowledge of their characters that they had in this film because what they meet is the multiverse. In the multiverse, it’s basically a mirror and they meet altered versions of themselves, and these actors are so good. They know they only have to change the slightest aspect of their characters’ personality to make an interesting conflict with the other-self.

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Image via Marvel Studios

Benedict, what’s it like to play a character that came in later on in the MCU, and now you’re kicking off this next bit?

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH: Great.

Does he feel like an elder statesman now? How did you approach that shift?

CUMBERBATCH: Less of the elder. No. He’s quite a maverick. He’s quite an outsider. He doesn’t immediately strike you as a leader, despite his prominence in the MCU, at this moment. That’s what makes him really interesting and conflicted, as a hero. As Sam alluded to, it’s the humanity that keeps people coming back for more. I think we see in this film an interaction of somebody who we’ve seen as very omnipotent, very creative and omnipresent, and yet we haven’t really understood what the cost of that is and what it is that’s fueling that, both him as a person, but also within this mysterious realm of sorcery and magic.

This is about examining that and finding his flaws, his faults and his humanity, as well as his strengths and renewing our understanding of him and deepening our understanding of him. So as far as a leader goes, this is more of a self-examination, holding up a mirror to him through this incredible narrative structure we have of a multiverse of other-selves that it is examining what his potential is to lead. He’s far better at being a collaborator, at working with others, and at realizing he can’t always be the one to hold the knife and control it all himself. Those are pretty leader-like qualities, I’d say. He’s evolving.

We got some glimpses of that, between him and Peter Parker.

CUMBERBATCH: Exactly. That was him trying to be an adult and a guardian, but getting it very wrong, to be honest. There was some poor parenting in that film. He got angry with the kid. He tried to take the toy back. It all went a bit wrong. But he’s not rigid. He’s a very flexible character who is malleable to his experience. He’s a very quick learner, not just intellectually, but emotionally now as well. He’s deepening his emotional language. I would say he’s a maturing leader rather than an elder one. I’m the first person to call out that I’m 45, so it’s fine. You’re not the first to say that I am. I’m only teasing you.

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Elizabeth, after everything Wanda went through in WandaVision, did it feel different to then come into this film?

ELIZABETH OLSEN: Yeah. In the previous films before WandaVision, I took up a lane for storytelling that was more grounded in sincerity, love, loss and grief. With WandaVision, I got to become anything and everything, and really grow her into a woman, leading her to accepting that she is this mythic woman and that is her destiny. I hope that, in this film, people see that continuation of her acceptance of who she is and the journey that she has taken to get to this moment. I feel like she has way more clarity now than ever, in this film.

Between Dr. Strange and Wanda, who’s the most powerful sorcerer?

OLSEN: I think we all know who would win.

CUMBERBATCH: She’s pretty all-powerful, let’s be honest. I have humility. It ain’t always what you’ve got. It’s the way that you use it.

OLSEN: That’s a little inappropriate, in this context.

CUMBERBATCH: In this context, it’s not inappropriate. What context are you referring to? And now she drinks her tea.

Benedict, what’s it like to be a part of the Wong Cinematic Universe?

BENEDICT WONG: Thank you. Yeah, it is the WCU. Thanks Kevin. I think we’re coming to the end of it now and we’re due another discussion. As a comic book fan and having collected all the Marvel comics, to be on board, I’m just living this dream, really, as the nerd that crossed the line and gets to play with these amazing actors, auteurs, writers and producers. It’s just a win-win for me.

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What has been your favorite nerding out moment on these sets?

WONG: There are just so many, really. Actually just meeting Stan Lee was a massive honor for me.

Xochitl, what’s it like to bring this brightness and vibrance, in the form of America Chavez, into the MCU?

XOCHITL GOMEZ: One thing that was so important to me was that this is a very adult movie. There are lots of adults in it. It’s very heavy. And so, I wanted to make sure that America still had that youthfulness and still had that fake it until you make it resilience. When you’ve got some crazy stuff happening, it’s a little hard. One thing that really helps is that she is 14, which is younger than she was in any of the comics. That really helps, in writing a new introduction, which I think (screenwriter) Michael Waldron did beautifully.

Michael, obviously every script has a new set of challenges, but always, with the MCU, the challenges seem impossibly difficult. Coming into this, knowing that you had to introduce new characters while staying within the lore, what kept you guys centered with the storytelling?

MICHAEL WALDRON: We got the script done and just stuck to it. It was done early on. We never changed it.

CUMBERBATCH: We did stick with the title, but Michael didn’t write the title.

WALDRON: We had a locked script. It was really easy. No. I had the great benefit of inheriting the bulk of these characters, which is what certainly centered me, creatively. I was just a steward of these characters on the page. There was a lot of opportunity to collaborate with the tremendous actors who know the characters better than I could. As the script evolved, which it very much was doing, all the time, you’re really refining it. It’s about leaning on the people who’ve been doing it even longer than we have, in this individual chapter. It’s a real team effort, putting this story together.

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Sam, as the director, how did you navigate this shooting schedule?

RAIMI: The script would often change minutes before [shooting]. The actors are very creative.

OLSEN: That’s a euphemism for opinionated.

RAIMI: Yeah, they’re opinionated. They know their characters better than anybody. They’ll recognize, in playing a scene, that something feels untrue or like a manipulation, and that it could be more real, so we’d make changes in the moment, trying to riff on that very good idea. When you’ve got great team members, as a director, you really wanna pull the best of their ideas together and make something better than you could have made on your own. That’s exactly what working on this movie was like for me – great actors, great ideas, and a script that was constantly changing. It was a very lively process.

The other movies that we have storylines from, some were being made concurrently or had just finished, like WandaVision had just finished and Spider-Man: No Way Home was also shooting. Our movie referenced those films, so we’d have to have meetings with the director saying, “What does Dr. Strange know, by the end of No Way Home? Does he even remember the multiverse?” We had plenty of questions that Michael had to take into the script in the moment and that change rippled through our movie. For a writer, it’s probably like improv is for an actor. These movies are reacting, making up and changing things, and you have to be in the moment and take it in and go with it.

Benedict, you get to portray different versions of Dr. Strange, first in What If? and now in this film. What has been your favorite part of getting to explore other sides of the character?

CUMBERBATCH: What the Strange we know learns really from that, this multiversal narrative structure or idea is in our own lives. We play multiple roles. We have an incredible capacity and imaginative space in our subconscious to imagine ourselves in different circumstances in our dreamscape. I feel that this is an extrapolation of that, in the sense that he’s meeting other versions who are essentially him, but they’ve made different choices in different circumstances with different outcomes. It’s great fuel for a form of very odd, spectacular self-therapy, really. It’s conversations, not just with me, as an actor, with my character, but with the character and other versions of the character.

It’s just a lot of fun to shift up the look, to shift the attitude or the mannerisms or the abilities, and to show he’s the same but different. It’s a fine balance. We pushed it on some levels, and less so on others. There’s the finessing skill that Sam has, to hold all this complexity and go with what makes the most sense for our hero for the story, and I just wanted to throw down as many opportunities as possible. It was a wonderful gateway into doing that.

Elizabeth, the way WandaVision was set up, there were so many different things you got to do? Did you still find something new to discover with her, in this film?

OLSEN: The answer is yes. I do feel like we explored something that I hadn’t been able to explore yet with the character. It’s really about this clarity and this confidence. I do think that she has learned so much and has a sense of confidence that we haven’t seen of her yet.

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Kevin, coming off of Spider-Man: No Way Home, how big of a challenge has it been for you to keep all of the twists and turns a secret? How do you keep it all under wraps?

FEIGE: The unfortunate truth is that you don’t, therefore you need to make sure that the experience itself works, regardless of what has been spoiled or not. We still do as good a job as we can. I think a lot of people are getting good at not spreading it. When somebody steals something, don’t spread it around because it just potentially lessens the experience. But in a lot of ways, No Way Home showed that it did not lessen the experience. We will continue to do the best that we can, but the most important thing is delivering the movie or the show that delivers, regardless of what you know, going in.

Do you see the Kevin Feige memes on Twitter, after the leaks?

FEIGE: No.

They’re of you, looking over the shoulder of whatever it is, encouraging people not to spoil whatever it is.

FEIGE: They don’t work.

Superhero movies touch heavily on the superhero’s great power also being the cause of their greatest tragedies. Elizabeth, what is the most exciting part of tapping into that with Scarlet Witch, and presenting a hero who is still finding out her limits and the consequences of her powers?

OLSEN: My biggest goal for everything is to play the lawyer to my character and to defend, defend, defend. Whether or not their greatest strength is their greatest weakness, wherever they’re coming from or whatever they’re processing, my goal is to just defend their perspective. I don’t necessarily think of things as being weaknesses. I don’t think we look at ourselves and go, “Well, this is a strength of mine.” I do she’s constantly processing, and I enjoy that. In WandaVision, and in all the films I’ve gotten to do, she’s constantly straddling this line. Usually, her biggest emotive loss or grief is when something is born. That’s been the trend. I do think we get to further that in this film, which is something that I’m happy about.

RAIMI: She’s a classic character that loved not too wisely, but too well. That’s a source of many of her aspirations in the film and sometimes leads to less happy moments for her. I don’t wanna spoil anything. I think that Lizzie did a great job summing up her approach. It’s so brilliant that [she’s] trying to defend [her] point of view of [her] character. It’s great. That’s what we all are trying to do in real life. It’s about, “I’m this person and here’s what I believe in.” It’s all about trying to understand your beliefs and explain them and sometimes defend them, and she does that in the movie, very effectively. It makes the fantastic journey that Michael puts you on very real. That’s how she brings great humanity to it and makes it connective to the audience.

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Kevin, how important was it for you to have America Chavez and her LGBTQ+ status be addressed in a meaningful way?

FEIGE: It’s important, as we always say, that these films represent the world as it is and the world outside your window, as they used to say in publishing. That aspect of America’s character is from the comics, and we always wanna adapt them as well and as truthfully as we can. When people see the movie, much like in life, there’s not any one thing that defines any one character. As Xochitl said, she’s a 14-year-old girl figuring out this very traumatic element of her life, which is not the LGBT issue, but the fact that she keeps being tossed around the multiverse, multiple times. Being truthful to that and showcasing that is not what the movie is about, but it is an important part of the character she becomes in the comics, so we wanted to touch upon that.

Benedict, how would you say Wong has changed and evolved into what we see now?

WONG: When I first took the job six years ago, we moved away from the old source material, which was old, and we developed and crafted this no-nonsense, midfield general librarian who’s continued through four or five of the movies, and now is the no-nonsense Sorcerer Supreme. I love where we’re going with this and the character progression of that. We’ll see what unfolds with this. You work on fries for a while, then you get to be area manager.

Benedict, you’ve appeared in a variety of different roles in different genres since Doctor Strange, but after your appearances in the Avengers movies and Spider-Man: No Way Home, and now this film, would you say that playing Dr. Strange is a character that’s defined your career?

CUMBERBATCH: Yeah, definitely. It’s one of the biggest, and it’s given me scope and freedom to support and nurture and finance smaller fair with delicate, difficult stories, and issues that otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to shine a light on, either as a producer or as an actor. I’m incredibly grateful for that opportunity, let alone this richly complex, very rewarding, and fun character to play. I love being your Dr. Strange.

Career defining? I’m on a journey, and this is a huge part of it. I always try to freshen things up and seek different challenges and work with different people, and this job is no exception to that. While there are certain remits to doing a film at this scale, it’s more of a marathon than a complete immersion for a short period of time in a character. It’s incredibly satisfying, the sheer level of inventiveness and childlike joy of playing and pretending that what’s here is utterly different to what is there or isn’t there in the blue or green screen world of it. It’s a fantastic muscle to exercise again, to create authenticity out of literally nothing.

At the same time, I also get the most phenomenal, workable, real-world environments, whether it’s the beautiful Sanctum Sanctorum, whether it’s four blocks of New York City that Charlie Wood, the very brilliant production designer on this and the first film, enables us to be able to shoot and work with, that’s the unsung joy of these films. It ain’t all little orange dots on a green wall, but I like that as well.

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Image via Marvel Studios

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Xochitl, coming into this movie as a young female actor, which MCU vets did you look to?

GOMEZ: Everyone is great, but in particular, I did look at Lizzie, especially while she was acting and getting ready to do a scene. I would watch her. I swear, I wasn’t a stalker. It sounds stalker-like, but it wasn’t like that.

CUMBERBATCH: We were all doing the same thing. We were all mesmerized by Lizzie.

OLSEN: That’s so uncomfortable.

GOMEZ: She’s just such a powerful woman. Especially me, as a young girl, I would constantly look up to her. Five minutes before a scene that was difficult, she would get in that moment, and I realized, “Well, if she’s doing it, I should probably do it too.” And I did do that. It helped me. I just learned so much from her, and she doesn’t even know it.

Sam, how exciting was it for you to bring some of your beloved horror elements into the MCU?

RAIMI: It was great. When Kevin announced that this movie would be the first entry into Marvel putting their toe into the world of horror, I was thrilled that he called me to come in and talk to them about the possibility of directing the picture. I was able to take those horror films that I made in my youth and what I had learned from them, building suspense sequences, titillating the audience, and when to deliver the scares, and apply that in the spooky sequences in this film. It was very helpful.

Michael, can you talk about how The Multiverse of Madness expands on the idea of the MCU having a magical community of more people than we’ve ever imagined?

WALDRON: Well, we expand it. There is an expansion. It’s a sequel.

CUMBERBATCH: The short answer is no, not really, he can’t [talk about it].

WALDRON: The first movie was very much about Stephen Strange entering this world of magic, learning about it, and beginning to master it. And then, we had Stephen in several other movies, with the Avengers films, and then in Spider-Man: No Way Home. This is our first time, really, in a movie that is his, and this is our chance to focus on that magic and check in on what it looks like, five years on. This guy was the greatest surgeon, and now he’s been a sorcerer for a while. He’s been through a lot. How good of a sorcerer is he? We’re seeing him at the height of his powers, and that’s really exciting. And then, at the same time, you’re encountering Wong, who has become Sorcerer Supreme, and he’s at the height of his powers. And then, you have Wanda, who is actualized in a whole new way, from the end of WandaVision, and you could say she’s at the height of her powers. So yeah, I guess we’re expanding. There’s lots of magic.

Elizabeth, Wanda is a character that is beloved by so many and her journey is so important to us. What can we expect from her healing, emotionally?

OLSEN: Through her processing of what happened in WandaVision, and through her processing her destiny, we find her in a place of strength and a belief system that she can rely on. It’s all connected from WandaVision. The story continues.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in theaters on May 6th.