'Doctor Strange 2' Runtime Confirms A Surprisingly Lean Marvel Movie

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness is just under a month away from release, and fans are excited for what we expect to be Marvel’s biggest crossover yet.

Some characters have been confirmed to appear in the Doctor Strange sequel, such as a few from Marvel’s TV show, Wandavision, and Sir Patrick Stewart who will reprise his role as Professor Charles Xavier of the X-Men. Many more characters such as Halle Berry as Storm, Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, and Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four have been rumoured to appear, but with no official confirmation. With a film so jam-packed with returning characters the expectation was that Doctor Strange 2 would be a big beefy boy.

If you missed out on the Super Bowl trailer which held all these reveals, you can check it out in the video below. 

Around three weeks ago a runtime was spotted on ticket pre-orders of 148 minutes. This would have made Doctor Strange 2 around 2 hours and 28 minutes long; exactly the same length and Spider-Man: No Way Home. With how popular the latest Spider-Man film was, fans weren’t surprised that Marvel might have been trying to recreate its success.

However, Disney shuffled its release calendar, moving the movie’s release from the end of March to the beginning of May. As spotted by Comic Book, updated theatre listings are now showing a runtime of 2 hours and 6 minutes; 22 minutes shorter than previously reported. It could be that the timing was originally published incorrectly, or that cuts were made, shortening the film’s length.

The Batman was recently released, and while it was a huge financial success for DC many criticised the bloated 2 hours and 56 minute runtime. This is not necessarily the reason that Doctor Strange 2 is looking a little lean, though Marvel may have noticed the pattern that fans are looking for more quality over quantity.