Doctor Strange 2’s director is throwing his hat in the ring to direct Avengers: Secret Wars, but an issue with his first MCU film gives us doubts.

An MCU director wants to helm Avengers: Secret Wars, but a major criticism of his Phase 4 film might be a reason for pause. Secret Wars still doesn’t have a director, and it will be a tremendous task for whichever filmmaker gets the job. The upcoming film is the culmination of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga and will include universes colliding with each other and many new and familiar faces that will join the battle. It could be even larger than Avengers: Endgame, meaning Marvel needs to find the perfect director who can capture the superhero chaos on a grand scale.

One director who recently expressed interest in directing Secret Wars is Sam Raimi, who helmed the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy and recently directed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. While Raimi’s roots start in horror, he’s proven he can create incredible superhero films that are beloved by critics and audiences and successful at the box office. However, a common critique of Doctor Strange 2 might indicate that Raimi isn’t the perfect choice for Secret Wars.

Doctor Strange 2’s Multiverse Didn’t Live Up To Its Potential

The MCU’s Phase 4 and Phase 5 have consisted of hits and misses, but Doctor Strange 2 is one of its hits. It received favorable reviews and made almost $1 billion at the worldwide box office. While not everyone agreed on the film’s quality, there was one criticism of the film that audiences seemed to have. The movie was called Multiverse of Madness, but its multiverse was underwhelming. Besides one scene where America Chavez and Doctor Strange travel through dozens of universes, the film explores only a few universes.

In each universe, there were only minor differences that separated the alternate universe from the main one. Things like pizza balls and changes in the stoplights didn’t do enough to show off how creative and wacky each universe could get. The Illuminati sequence did deliver some epic cameos like John Krasinski’s Reed Richards, but the film could have given audiences even more variants and bizarre alternate worlds. It also didn’t help that Doctor Strange 2 premiered shortly after Everything Everywhere All At Once, a film that embraced the creative potentials of infinite universes.

Sam Raimi Needs To Embrace The Multiverse For Secret Wars

Avengers: Secret Wars brings together many different Marvel heroes and villains from many universes. This could include combining the MCU with Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man universe and the Fox X-Men universe. Needless to say, there’s going to be a lot of multiverse exploration, and the MCU needs to embrace the endless opportunities that are available with this premise. If Raimi directs this film, he needs to go all out, taking significant risks and going above and beyond what audiences can imagine. The MCU’s multiverse hasn’t fully delivered yet, but Raimi has the creative ability to execute it perfectly.