My Pitch for Doctor Strange 3

My Pitch for Doctor Strange 3 

The Doctor Strange franchise is a very successful film franchise, across two films they’ve made $1.6 billion at the box office. While a third film hasn’t been announced, I would assume it’s very likely a third film will happen. I have ideas for what I would do with a third film. Let’s get started!

THE PITCH: My pitch for this movie, I want to do something big and ambitious that ties into the larger narrative of the MCU. Lean into more of the horror aspects that Multiverse of Madness kind of held back on. Let’s bring back Sam Raimi as the director and let him do more things. In order to do a horror film with Doctor Strange, Nightmare is going to be our villain. But we’re also going to balance it with character moments, give character depth and growth to Doctor Strange and our side characters. I feel for a character like Wong, he’s been in multiple MCU movies but hasn’t had time to be more front and center. I won't Wong to be very prominent and give him an arc in this movie. While doing all of this, set up Doctor Strange’s future in the MCU. The movie will also pick up on Clea’s cameo at the end of Multiverse of Madness, where they go into The Dark Dimension. That’s our title for the movie, DOCTOR STRANGE: INTO THE DARK DIMENSION. 

THE BEGINNING

• The movie is going to start off with a sequence that takes place before the events of Multiverse of Madness. During the mid-credit scene for Doctor Strange (2016) it teases that Mordo is out to get Doctor Strange, that’s going to be one of the big elements of this movie. Even some lines of dialogue in Multiverse of Madness, implies that some of that happened. This opening sequence shows Baron Mordo trying to kill our Doctor Strange. Use some of the sorcery stuff from the first film, that film has very cool visuals about it. I thought that was an aspect that was lacking in the Multiverse of Madness. Have some very cool creative visuals going on here, it’s very cool and dynamic with the way it’s done. The sequence lasts a couple of minutes long, at one point Doctor Strange gets knocked down. While he’s doing, Mordo manages to escape but with how it’s done you can tell he’s very confused as to what happened. Strange doesn’t see this, but he turns around and sees that Mordo is gone. We see where Mordo went, it’s in this dark world, a dark dimension. The main color palette here is green, even the fire is green. This will be our introduction to Nightmare. Where we tease how Mordo ties into all of this, Nightmare evokes the biggest fears from people.We see that Mordo’s biggest fear is Doctor Strange, he knows what he’s made of so we learn that Nightmare is going to send Mordo across the multiverses to kill all of the Doctor Stranges. As soon as this happens, our Marvel Studios logo appears. 

• CASTING: As Nightmare is our main villain of the movie, we have to talk about who will play him. To be honest, I don’t know much about Nightmare from the comics. I read up on him to familiarize myself with him to understand who he is. I want somebody who has this villainous presence about him. Whenever he’s on screen, you feel the danger and fear of him. For this one, I’m gonna go with a bit of an outside of the box pick. I’m going with ROBERT ENGLUAND on this one. Of course, he’s a legendary horror star playing Freddy Kruger. He’s so good at doing that, I think if he can bring a lot of those talents over to this movie we can get a really memorable and cool villain. 

• We’ll transition from the Marvel Studios logo to seeing Clea in the present time, we’ll set up that she’s from a different Earth. She’ll be training fighting random things in this facility. Mordo will show up behind her and we’ll get some lines of dialogue explaining where Earth's Doctor Strange is. One of the things we’ll learn is right now, this Earth doesn’t have a Doctor Strange. During this, there'll be a fight scene between Clea and Mordo and have this be another cool visually looking sequence. Their powers are making them do weird and crazy things, as they're going through different universes and into The Dark Dimension at points. Mordo manages to knock Clea out and escape, leaving Clea in The Dark Dimension. 

• Cut from there, we’ll see the mid-credit scene for Multiverse of Madness with our Doctor Strange walking down the street and Clea showing up. Once Doctor Strange and Clea head into the portal, we’ll get some exposition as our characters are traveling through The Dark Dimension. Once again, have some cool Doctor Strange type visuals of exploring The Dark Dimension. Also with this, there's an exposition where Clea is explaining to Strange what Mordo told her. Clea suspects that maybe there’s somebody else involved in all of this. There’s somebody operating in The Dark Dimension that’s helping Nightmare and Mordo. While exploring, The Dark Dimension Strange and Clea will get attacked by unknown beings. They’ll land somewhere in The Dark Dimension and they’re fighting these creatures off. No matter how many hits the creatures take, they just get right back up. Strange contracts one more spell that temporarily traps the creatures so he and Clea can escape and go back to Earth.

THE INCITING INCIDENT

• This will lead into the inciting incident of the movie. Doctor Strange and Clea return to Earth, they have to Kamar Taji where they inform Wong and America Chavez on Nightmare and what’s going on. Wong was the magical librarian in the first film, so he knows information about The Dark Dimension. Here, we’ll learn and put the pieces together that Dormammu is somehow involved in all of this. Dormammu is the one working with Nightmare. Wong remembers these ancient scrolls about The Dark Dimension, but since they are such powerful spells they’re not for the average sorcerer. Wong and America Chavez are going to go retrieve those scrolls. Clea is warning Wong not to go because of the dangerous path to get there. We learn that her Doctor Strange was consumed by power and turned evil because her Doctor Strange tried to get those scrolls. Wong and Chavez still go on ahead to retrieve these scrolls. Before, they'll be able to leave some of those creatures and return to Kamar Taji followed by Mordo. We’ll get another action sequence, Multiverse of Madness had a sequence involving Kamar Taj being destroyed. This sequence, maybe it is the full on destruction of Kamar Taj. It’s falling to the ground, and the reunion fight between Strange and Mordo. In Multiverse of Madness, we get a line of dialogue where our Doctor Strange says that Mordo from his Earth was trying to kill him. We’ll get more of that in here, we’ll understand what has happened between the two of them between the events of the movies. Kamar Taj continues to get destroyed, we know that Wong and Chavez still have their mission to go on. Wong manages to make a portal for him and Chavez to escape from, but they leave. Meanwhile, Strange and Clea are fighting for their lives at Kamar Taj. Clea does a move that manages to knock Mordo back, she destroys several of the unknown beings in the process. Strange manages to knock Mordo out and they take Mordo back to The Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City. 

THE MIDDLE ACT

• At the Sanctum Sanctorum, Strange locks Mordo up in a cage. There’s power dampeners all over the cage so Mordo can’t escape. There’s a spell over the Sanctorum so no outside forces can get inside. Strange and Mordo have a talk, Strange gets more information on what exactly is going on. Who’s Nightmare and what’s their goal in all of this? We learn that Nightmare can strike fear into his enemies and he uses the fear as a way to weaken them and defeat them. Strange learns that Mordo fears him, where Strange is this powerful being but we know Strange can be reckless. Tackle it as a continuation of Strange’s character from Multiverse of Madness. In this scene, set up Strange’s character arc for the movie. Strange mentions that he’s going to read up on Nightmare and see what he can learn. Strange leaves, Clea is still there and Mordo says “he doesn’t know does he”, building this mystery as to what Clea is up to in all of this. 

• Cut to Wong and Chavez on their mission to find the scrolls. I’m not an expert in the Doctor Strange comics, I don’t really know what ancient locations there are in the Doctor Strange world. Wong and Chavez show up at this town, pretty early on we learn that Wong is known in this town. You have a twist in here if we see Wong’s brother, this will set up an important plot point later on in the film. Have a small little sequence in here, setting up his relationship with his brother. Learn as to why Wong never mentioned him earlier, there was a falling out a long time ago. Introducing the idea that Wong going to work with The Ancient One was a sign of betraying his family. Wong’s brother asks what they’re doing here. Wong explains the scrolls and what Mordo is up to. They talk for a while, Wong and Chavez travel to the scrolls. They arrive there, Wong finds the scrolls and starts to read them. As he’s reading them, images are appearing on screen. Giving the backstory as to who Dormammu is. Wong stops reading, and we see a shocked look on Wong’s face. He says a line that implies that Dormammu has a helper helping him, there’s a picture that resembles Clea. Wong tries to open a portal to The Sanctum Sanctorum but the spell over the sanctum doesn’t allow them to do that. Build this tension as Strange is in a trap, but he doesn’t know it. 

• Back to Strange and Clea, Strange is reading up on Nightmare and learns who he is. There are books about him, he then decides to start reading a book on Dormammu, he has a similar look that Wong had earlier. Clea comes in and stabs the book and throws it to the ground. Strange learns that Clea is working with Dormammu, and they have a fight. Since Clea has a sword, she’s using that more and Strange makes a magical looking sword and starts fighting with her. Strange manages to pin Clea up against a wall, Clea throws part of her sword to break open Mordo’s cage. Strange tries to fight off both of them, but he’s not able to quite do that. They knock Strange out, Clea and Mordo talk about a way to lure Wong and Chavez back here. During this, we’ll cut to Wong and Chavez, Wong is trying to open up a portal back to New York City. He finally manages to open a portal, we know what happened and so we start to fear what’s going to happen. They jump through the portal, they see Strange knocked out on the ground. Clea’s behind them and knocks both of them out. 

• Back at The Dark Dimension, Strange, Wong, and Chavez are tied up by their hands and feet. They’re Nightmare’s lair area with the green fire all around them. Clea and Mordo are standing next to Nightmare’s throne. Nightmare gets up off his throne and starts talking with our heroes. This is the exposition dump of the Nightmare and Dormammu’s plan. Nightmare and Dormammu are tired of being stuck in The Dark Dimension, they want to strike fear in our heroes to weaken them. One by one, we’ll learn that Strange’s, Wong’s, and Chavez’s biggest fear is. Chavez is connected to her moms, this was set up as part of her character in Multiverse of Madness. She blames herself for “killing” her parents and she’s afraid that she won’t be able to control her powers and that could lead to more destruction in the future. Wong ties back to his brother and how he doesn’t want to let his brother down. Then with Strange, it’s connected to the idea of knowing that he’s happy. He’s accepted that he and Christine can’t really be together. His fear is losing his happiness and tied to that, he wants everybody in his life to be successful and have good lives moving forward. Also in here, we’ll learn what Clea’s biggest fear is. We’ll learn that she and Dormammu are step-siblings (this is from the comics). Basically, as kids and teenagers Clea and Dormammu were very close and then got separated. Clea’s fear was the thought of her brother being dead. That’s why Clea is working with Nightmare and Dormammu, she’s reunited with her brother. This is where I want to do something big and ambitious. We just established that Strange’s biggest fear is his friends not being happy and he wants to make sure they have good lives. Strange realizes here that all the threats of Nightmare, Dormammu, and Mordo are tied back to Strange. Even how Chavez got roped up with being friends was because of Strange’s arrogance. Strange manages to break through from his chains, he fights with Nightmare, during their fight he manages to kill Nightmare and himself. He wants his friends to be happy and live good lives, but he realizes that himself is the thing preventing it from happening. Have this big shocker of a moment here, oh crap Strange is dead. 

• With Strange and Nightmare dead, Wong and Chavez are transported back to The Sanctum Sanctorum, they start to cry as Strange is dead. Cut to a hospital where Christine is working, she turns around a corner. Wong and Chavez are standing there, with tears in their eyes. Christine starts to put the pieces together as to what happened. There’s no dialogue in this moment, we see the expressions on their faces and have this somber music playing over the entire thing. You really feel the emotional weight of the scene. 

• Back in The Dark Dimension, Clea has a conversation with Dormammu. Dormammu transforms into a human form, during this scene we learn that Dormammu is a Doctor Strange variant. Dormammu is the variant from Clea’s Earth. Have this scene right here, provide more context for Clea’s backstory. Explore what the dynamic between Clea and Dormammu was as a child. Nightmare appears in this scene, he had one trick up his sleeve and Nightmare isn’t dead. During this scene, just by looking at Clea’s face we see that she’s changing her mind on some things. She’s not really agreeing with what Dormammu and Nightmare are doing. 

• Back at the Sanctum Sanctorum, Wong, Chavez, and Christine are just there talking and mourning about the death of Strange. Clea walks into the rooms and rightfully so, Wong and Chavez are defensive and try to attack her. Clea says she knows a way to bring Strange back. They have this conversation about whether or not they can trust her. Clea talks about how she doesn’t recognize her brother anymore, he’s so concussed by darkness and evil. And the Strange that we know is more so the brother that she remembers. Christine is the first one to start trusting Clea. Honestly, I’m not exactly sure what the process is. But Clea does know a process to bring Strange back and Wong is the one to do it. He overcomes fear that Nightmare brought out of him. He wants to be the hero to show his brother. Wong’s character arc connects to Nightmare’s plan and goal. In the process of all of this, they manage to bring Doctor Strange back to life. 

THE THIRD ACT

• With Strange back alive, they’re ready to go and defeat Nightmare and Dormammu once and for all. Wong steps into a leadership role as he finds all of the remaining sorcerers still alive after the destruction of Kamar Taj. They have an army of sorcerer’s ready to go. There Is a scene in here between Strange and Christine, it’s nothing major but there is something there. Strange, Clea, Wong, Chavez, and the army head to The Dark Dimension to defeat Nightmare and Dormammu. They arrive and this big battle breaks loose in The Dark Dimension. Our heroes figure out this plan where Strange and Clea are going to defeat Dormammu, while Wong and Chavez go and fight Nightmare.  

• With Strange and Clea, they arrive where Dormammu is at and we really see that Dormammu is this corrupted, darker version of Doctor Strange. They have their fight while Clea fights with Mordo. Clea and Mordo’s fight is more hand to hand combat stuff, it’s a different type of fight then what we’re used to seeing in a Doctor Strange movie. The fight between Strange and Dormammu is more classic Doctor Strange action with the Doctor Strange visuals. Wong and Chavez are fighting with Nightmare. This side of the fight is going to be the more meaningful and emotional fight. We established what Wong and Chavez’s biggest fears are. They use their fears as a way to defeat Nightmare. Chavez was worried that her powers would break out and she could “kill” people like she did her moms. Wong was wanting to be the hero and not let down his brother like before. They use that as a way to defeat Nightmare. America Chavez goes for it with her powers, she’s not holding it back. Wong gets some good powerful punches thrown in there. Nightmare is defeated, cut back to Strange and Clea. With Clea and Mordo, we’ve already been getting the character for Clea in this movie. Where she went from evil to good, because she saw the darkness that Dormammu had and realized that our Earth’s Doctor Strange isn’t all that bad. Have her trying to give Mordo a change of heart, he’s not seeing what she’s seeing. Mordo snaps, realizes what he’s doing and he helps Strange defeat Dormammu. The character arc seems a bit rushed, but it’s feeling more rushed then it actually is. When Doctor Strange hits the final blow on Dormammu, maybe he says “I’ve come to bargain” as a throw back to the first film. 

EPILOGUE

• So our heroes won, the threat is destroyed and it’s a celebration of sorts taking place. Close out the Doctor Strange trilogy in a nice satisfying way. Maybe you have America Chavez leave, she realizes she needs to find her parents. She realizes that by holding back her powers she was holding back reuniting with her mothers. That’s the note we leave Chavez on. In Multiverse of Madness, it was set up that Wong became The Sorcerer Supreme after Doctor Strange was erased in Thanos’ snap. In this sequence, Wong gives the rank of Sorcerer Supreme back to Doctor Strange. Wong leaves the Sanctum, he reunites his brother and realizes that maybe he was letting down his brother by being gone. Mordo asks for Doctor Strange’s forgiveness after everything that has taken place. Strange accepts, as well as Clea’s forgiveness and sets up that three of them are now the new leaders of Kamar Taj and The Sanctum Sanctorum. Close out on that note, maybe we see them rebuilding Kamar Taj.  

MID-CREDIT SCENE: It’s an MCU movie, of course there’s a mid-credit scene. We’ll pick up with Doctor Strange as he’s in Kamar Taj, maybe he’s training somebody. Strange hears this voice in his head, and suddenly he disappears. He pops back up in this green environment…he turns around and Loki is sitting on his time master throne. Have Doctor Strange crack a joke about how he's confused as to why Loki is there and what’s going on. Loki starts to explain that during Doctor Strange’s death this evil force, a conqueror rose up and started messing with the timeline. Doctor Strange asks for his name. Loki says “Kang”. Have this movie setup that Doctor Strange knows about Kang and that ties into my pitch for Shang-Chi 2 that I did earlier this year.