Defender Strange, Hero Strange, Sinister
Strange, and Dead Strange.
Marvel Studios Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
shows us new sides of our favorite sorcerer.
So to break it all down, we're talking
with Marvel Studios Visual Development
Supervisor, Ian Joyner.
Hi yah, Ian.
Hello, Ryan.
All right, so in this film, we meet several versions
of Doctor Strange.
And they all kind of embody different aspects
of the character.
How did you approach designing these different Stranges.
So beginning to develop the different looks
for Doctor Strange was a really interesting challenge.
We got to see, what does he look like when ego is run amok?
What does he look like when the dark power has taken over?
All the way to what does he look like as a shambling corpse?
We were very lucky and very blessed
that we have years and years of comic books to go back to.
So we all able to go and see which looks we thought
were the strongest, which looks were the most interesting,
and pull from that and infuse some of the design work
that was done in the first film and make sure
that it all kind of gelled together
and felt cohesive, yet unique and interesting in its own way.
So of course we start off the film not with the Doctor
Strange that we know and love, but with a very cool Defender
Strange.
Where did you start with developing this new look?
With Defender Strange, some of the biggest asks
were to make sure that this character felt like a brand
new version of Doctor Strange.
So we knew we had to avoid a lot of the things that have become
iconic about the character, yet still instantly recognize
him as Doctor Strange.
Again, we were lucky because we had years and years
of comic book reference.
We knew we wanted to lean into the swashbuckling
aspect of the character, things like removing the cape
and making sure that he had a lot of mobility was important.
But still having some of that secondary motion
like the sashes and things like that.
One of the other iteration points
was does every Strange have an Eye of Agamotto.
We explored yes, no, different takes.
Would there be different realities
at a different versions of the Eye?
Ultimately, deciding that it made the most
sense for just our hero Strange to be
the one who carried the Eye.
Yeah, so speaking of our main hero, Strange,
he has a slightly new look from the last time we saw him.
How did you approach his design on this film?
IAN JOYNER: One of the key design
elements of Doctor Strange is avoiding
the typical superhero look.
You don't want him to just feel like he's wearing tights
when he's fighting or conjuring or doing
whatever he needs to do.
The look of the core Strange is very similar to the last time
we saw him, but as you start to look a little closer,
the suit fits a little tighter.
He's a little bit more heroic in proportion, everything
down to the way that the Eye of Agamotto
is sitting a little bit higher, which
we kind of pulled in to be a little bit of a reference
to the comic book look.
Yeah, and oh of course, we also
see that the Cloak of Levitation gets a new look in this film.
How did you guys approach the very important
challenge of repairing Cloak?
Cloak is such an important character
in the Doctor Strange mythos.
And when Cloak gets damaged, it's heart wrenching.
This is a character we've known for years and years now.
One of the thoughts was to look at what
the Strange of that universe would have and bring that
into the design of how to patch Cloak up
and get him battle ready again.
So pulling in that blue patch is almost a little memory
and a little memento of some of the adventures he was going on.
So later on and across the multiverse,
we meet Sinister Strange.
What was your approach in designing
this corrupted version of Doctor Strange?
In developing Sinister Strange we
knew he had to be as recognizable
as our Hero Strange as possible, but with an edge.
Things just got out of hand.
So taking the initial costume designed by Carlo Ortiz
and adding a little bit of a dark sinister edge to it
was a really interesting and fun challenge.
The simplest thing to do was to sharpen lines,
to add more texture, to add more weathering.
We also added a kind of leather backing on top of the shoulders
to add a little bit more of a imposing stance on him.
While we kept developing him, the idea came up
for the third eye to come out.
The question was how organic do we go?
So we developed everything from kind of a bulging area
in the forehead that would be instantly noticeable,
all the way to it just magically appearing.
What ultimately seemed to be the best way to go
is that you wouldn't really notice it until it pops open
and gives a nice scare.
And speaking of a nice scare, I know I got one
and many others did as well, the first time we saw it,
Dead Strange.
Super cool look, by the way.
Walk us through it.
What was it like bringing this design to life as it were.
IAN JOYNER: First and foremost, when you're working on a Sam
Raimi film, you have to hope at one point you get
to make some form of zombie.
One of the really fun parts about making Dead Strange
was, how do we show that this gruesome character
can be scary?
How can we show this gruesome character can also be heroic?
So we did a lot of iterations, everything
from missing eyeballs to clouded over eyeballs
to parts of his jaw being missing,
all sorts of horrific things.
Ultimately, we knew we still needed him to be relatable
and somewhat heroic in the end.
While we were developing the look of the shadowy beings that
were pulling Strange back to the realm of the dead,
a fun idea came up that not only would these things happen,
but that Doctor Strange would be able to control them.
What is a Doctor Strange without Cloak, right?
So to then use those things and turn
into this crazy demonic monster Cloak was such a fun
challenge to undertake.
All right as fans now get to go back and rewatch the film
a whole bunch of times, what do you hope audiences take away
from seeing these different versions, these different sides
of the character?
I hope audiences react to these different Doctor Stranges
the way that I felt when we got to start working on them,
excited to see how different they
all are and yet interested to see how similar they could be.
To take one too far would be to break the character.
But to push him just to the edge of something new with something
that was really, really exciting to work on.
Well, Ian, as a fan, I can't say enough how much I loved all
the work that you and the team put into making this film
and designing these Doctor Strangess,
bringing them to life.
And also thanks for chatting with us.
Everybody else out there watching, please
go enjoy all the multiversal moments as you go and rewatch
Marvel Studio's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Now streaming on Disney Plus.