'Doctor Strange' cast reveal Sam Raimi's horror roots brought 'a lot of goo' to Marvel (exclusive)

Watch: Benedict Wong and Elizabeth Olsen on Sam Raimi joining Doctor Strange 

Fans of director Sam Raimi will find plenty of traces of the horror maestro's genre past in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, according to stars Benedict Wong and Elizabeth Olsen.

The Evil Dead filmmaker took the helm of the Doctor Strange sequel after Scott Derrickson, who directed the first Strange movie in 2016, stepped aside.

Benedict Wong, whose namesake character Wong is now firmly established as the Sorcerer Supreme, told Yahoo that Raimi brought his unique love of the grotesque to set.

Read more: Everything we know about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

"There's a lot of goo. We couldn't find enough goo," he said.

Wong added: "It's fantastic, isn't it? One of the old masters of horror and obviously the original OG of the Marvel movies with the Spider-Man trilogy."

The star said Raimi was 'perfectly' positioned to take on Doctor Strange, having worked on horror projects and superhero adventures in the past — helming three Spidey films between 2002 and 2007.

Read more: Elizabeth Olsen teases Sam Raimi's approach to Doctor Strange

Olsen, who now joins the Doctor Strange fold as Wanda — now embracing her Scarlet Witch moniker — said she hasn't yet seen the finished movie, but is excited to see Raimi's horror flourishes play out.

She said: "I think so much of suspense and jumps and thrills come from editing and music.

"I know that we played with the camera and that we did play with lenses and how we would shoot things in order to elicit some sort of fear or excitement for the fans and to be a little bit manipulative to the audience.

"So I do hope that there is some sort of thrill in it for everyone. I also think Sam can't help but do that, so I'm looking forward to seeing it myself."

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — Raimi's first directorial outing since Oz the Great and Powerful in 2013 — deals with the fallout of the magical actions of Benedict Cumberbatch's sorcerer during the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

The arrival of the reality-hopping America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) forces Strange and Wong to further explore the multiverse as a concept, with the help of Olsen's magic-wielding character.

For Olsen, the increased complexity of the MCU since the arrival of the multiverse has left her scratching her head at times.

"I usually am kind of lost and then I just have someone tell me what I need to know so that I can understand what to do for myself," she confessed.

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The WandaVision star added: "But I do find this introduction to the multiverse to be really exciting for storytelling. I do think there is going to be a lot of fun for the fans when it comes to crossing over of all of our different projects in film and television and bringing it together through these films and through the multiverse.

"It's a very exciting time for the MCU and I hope that we continue to get our fans engaged. It has been a long time. It's been over a decade now, so I hope that we continue to surprise people."

Rumours are already raging about the possibilities at play around Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, with a particularly famous voice spotted in the trailer.

Fans can also expect to see the movie make use of "variants" of well-known characters — as was introduced in Disney+ series Loki — with trailers already teasing multiple different incarnations of Strange himself.

Read more: Could Loki be in Doctor Strange sequel?

The film is confirmed to feature the return of Chiwetel Ejiofor's Mordo, who turned heel at the end of the previous movie in protest at Strange's time-altering actions and Rachel McAdams is also back in the frame as Strange's former partner Christine Palmer.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will be released in UK cinemas on 5 May.

Watch: Trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness