Scott Derrickson

Nobody panic, but the fifth or sixth iteration of a Locke & Key TV series has hit something of a snag. Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson had to bow out of directing the Hulu project, but already has a replacement with significant It factor.

We’re still not entirely certain how a TV iteration of Bong Joon-Ho’s Snowpiercer will roll on, but the cast is at least heating up. Not only will Hamilton alum Daveed Diggs lead the new series, Jennifer Connelly has now joined the Scott Derrickson-directed pilot.

We’re rightfully wary of a TV version of Bong Joon-Ho’s Snowpiercer, but it may be time to get on board. Not only will Hamilton alum Daveed Diggs lead the new series, but none other than Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson will take the controls.

Maybe the fourth (or fifth…or sixth…) time’s a charm for Joe Hill’s Locke & Key. The author’s acclaimed fantasy-horror graphic novel series has come absurdly close to making the leap from page to screen on more than one occasion, but that was back before streaming services began producing their own original content, giving a home to riskier, more ambitious projects — stuff like, say, Locke & Key, which is once again in development as a TV series, this time at Hulu with Carlton Cuse (LOST) serving as showrunner and producing alongside Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange), who will also direct several episodes of the first season.

While Marvel has a reputation for valuing continuity on both sides of the camera, it’s easy to forget that the first two phases of Marvel movies were essentially put together by hired guns. The early days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe were populated by directors like Alan Taylor, Kenneth Branagh, Joe Johnston, and Shane Black, one-and-done filmmakers who were either not invited or not inclined to go a second round with the studio.

Doctor Strange is the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to feature the kind of mind-bending magic absent from most other films in the Avengers series. The Thor movies tend to demur and call their magic science, but Doctor Strange is the Sorcerer Supreme, and as such has powers so great they allow him to bend time and space. The bad news is his enemies can do the same, not to mention summon demons from other dimensions that require blood sacrifices.

Because Doctor Strange is in the MCU, and because the good Doctor himself will be showing up during the Infinity War two-parter, and because we need to get all those Infinity Stones out in the open before the movie hits or it’ll just be a mess of confusion right out the gate, Doctor Strange needed to introduce the Time Stone. But apparently, according to director Scott Derrickson, the Time Stone didn’t actually figure into the plot of the movie at all until very late in the drafting process.

Sometimes humor doesn’t come from jokes, but perspective. And when you’re making one superhero movie after another in the same cinematic universe, it can be helpful to get an outsider’s two cents. That’s what Marvel did when they brought on Community creator Dan Harmon to help with some last-minute script work on Doctor Strange. Now the film’s director Scott Derrickson has revealed what exactly Harmon’s contributions were.

By now, you know (and have probably seen) Doctor Strange, the 14th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But did you know that attempts to make a movie about Doctor Strange date back decades before Iron Man? In 1978, they even made a Doctor Strange TV movie, in an attempt to recreate the successful formula behind the popular Incredible Hulk TV show. That’s just one of the “strange” facts featured in the newest episode of You Think You Know Movies!

Marvel movie scripts go through a ton of editing and plot reworking before they’re finally handed over to their directors, and Doctor Strange was no different. It’s a more ambitious film from its predecessors in many ways, not the least of which is introducing audiences to a new superhero and an entirely new way of thinking about the Marvel multiverse. Unsurprisingly, the writers went through a few villain ideas before it landed on the one Marvel president Kevin Feige felt would be most appropriate for the movie, but apparently we were very close to getting a completely different big bad. (Warning — SPOILERS ahead for those of you who haven’t seen the movie yet, so proceed with caution.)