That Doctor Strange Cameo Was Included Because Fans Wanted It, Says Marvel Boss

Spoiler warning: This article contains some spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. If you’ve not seen the movie and don’t want any surprises ruined, scroll far, far away. Or don’t, I’m not the boss of you.

Last month, we finally saw the release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and generally, it seems that people thought that it was, uh, alright? It sure is a movie that exists, anyway.

Some parts of it though were undeniably cool, with both the inclusion and casting of the Illuminati being highlights. Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) made that highly-anticipated appearance, along with Black Bolt (Anson Mount), Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell), Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Captain Marvel (Lashana Lynch), and also Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic (John Krasiniski).

Take a look at this awesome real life flying Doctor Strange cloak in action below.

Reed Richards’ casting in particular was a thing of beauty - over the years, many fans had selected Krasiniski as an ideal choice for the role, so to see it actually happen was pretty great. And, it turns out, as reported by ComicBook, that he’d been picked specifically because of these fan castings.

This was confirmed by director Sam Raimi in the Disney+ audio commentary of the film: “It's so funny that Kevin [Feige] cast John [Krasinski] because the fans had a dream of who the perfect Reed Richards would be,” he said. “And because this is an alternate universe, I think Kevin said, ‘Let's make that dream come true.’ I've always really enjoyed all of his performances.”

Overall though, fan service wasn’t the goal of the movie, as writer Michael Waldron revealed in an interview with ComicBook last month: “It's easy to be seduced by the cheap laugh, the cheap cheer, whatever. But that's never what Marvel or Sam [Raimi] were interested in,” he said. “It was always about what’s right for the story, what's right for Steven Strange, what’s right for Wanda. It was never about fan service, really. It was like, ‘if these Illuminati characters are here, they should be here because that's who’s in the Illuminati in the comics, and that’s who would actually be in the Illuminati.’ That was our north star.”

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is available to stream now on Disney+.