The center of the Nerdom Kingdom swung wide its doors this past week for the 49th season of the San Diego Comic Con. Panels, spoilers, teasers, trailers, previews, cosplayers, interviews, vendors, artists, actors, creators, builders, vendors, and MANY more wonders entertained attendees while reaching for the fistfuls of cash and plastic hurled back and forth down the aisles. It is a beautiful, overwhelming time and I cannot recommend it strongly enough.
One piece of news that instantly caught my attention from this year's show was the announcement of the next Doctor Strange movie in 2021. It's slated to be a horror film. Marvel actually has a long history of horror books, as does the industry as a whole, and Doctor Strange is no, um, stranger to the dark beings hiding in your closet.
Few details exist. Scarlet Witch is slated to join Strange for part of his journey while the ruler of the Dream Dimension named Nightmare might be the villain. Beyond that, we have to wait and see. Or do we? John Carpenter fans will recognize the play on words in the movie title. "In the Multiverse of Madness" compared to Carpenter's 1994 horror film "In the Mouth of Madness". While the film is not specifically an adaptation of a work by HP Lovecraft, it is Lovecraftian in every sense with elder beings, reality twisting ideas, and an imaginary town of death and secrets brought into terrible reality. It's good 90's horror.
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| I crack me up. |
So, have we been handed a massive clue in the title? Seems a bit obvious if it is. Yet, watching Strange combat a madness raging across the Marvel multiverse that threatens to unleash ancient, cosmos devouring horrors that could rip Dormammu apart as easily and blindly as a windshield dismantles an insect could be EPIC. Derivative, but epic. Speaking of devouring, let's talk about the 800 lb. Man-Thing* in the room: Earth-2149. Could the horror spreading through the multiverse be former heroes? Hungry former heroes?
It's a long shot, at best, but there's literally nothing keeping Strange from visiting, then having to escape from, Earth-2149. How crazy would a Chris Evans ZOMBIE CAP CAMEO be!
Lots of time from now to 2021. I'm going into this waiting period with positive hopes. Scott Derrickson is back at the director's helm, so he knows the character, and the majority of his work is suspense/horror. He can do a good job if allowed.
Here's to hoping he is.
*He does guard the Nexus of All Realities. Will it come into play? Hmmm.....
