Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is roughly three weeks away from its big release, and now the highly-anticipated sequel has officially received its PG-13 rating.
After the events of Loki season one and Spider-Man: No Way Home, the next MCU film will follow Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange through the alternate realities of the multiverse as he is forced to make new allies in order to defeat new threats that seek to wreak havoc on several universes. The long-awaited sequel comes six years after its predecessors' release, making it the longest gap for an MCU character's sequel
With the film's 126-minute runtime confirmed, Film Ratings announced that the film has received a PG-13 for "intense sequences of violence and action, frightening images and some language." According to their website, they have the first Doctor Strange film listed with the same rating for containing sci-fi violence and action throughout and an intense crash sequence. With Sam Raimi behind the camera this time around (who took over for Scott Derrickson), it's no surprise Doctor Strange 2 is being described as a horror film, hence why it will contain "frightening images."
Star Elizabeth Olsen, who is reprising her role as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, added to this horror label, confirming in an interview with Glamour UK that the sequel is "... a very scary movie. It's like old Sam Raimi. He's trying to create the scariest Marvel movie." It was very unlikely to begin with that the sequel would get an R rating, as Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige confirmed that the first R-rated film in the MCU would be Deadpool 3. But with the MCU continuing to explore darker, more eerie stories with other projects such as Disney Plus' Moon Knight series, who knows, an R-rated Doctor Strange film is never out of the picture, especially if a filmmaker like Raimi would still be attached.
Ratings aside, from its deeper exploration of the multiverse to the rumored cameos, which include Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool and Fox's Fantastic Four group, Raimi seems to have created one of the MCU's most bonkers and expansive projects to date with Doctor Strange 2, one that will for sure have lasting implications for the cinematic universe moving forward.
Joining Cumberbatch and Olsen are Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo, Benedict Wong as Wong, and Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer. Loki head writer Michael Waldron, who was praised for his work on the Marvel Studios series, was hired to rewrite the script along with newcomer Jade Bartlett.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will arrive in theaters on May 6, 2022.
Source: Film Ratings, Glamour UK