Marvel Studios is going as big with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as fans hoped. The film promises to pick up where several previous Marvel Cinematic Universe titles left off, including Spider-Man: No Way Home and WandaVision, and will tell a multiversal story that has the potential to totally reshape many viewers’ understanding of Hollywood’s biggest superhero franchise.
In other words, Multiverse of Madness is shaping up to be one of the grandest and most ambitious films that Marvel has ever made. And according to a new online rumor, it looks like the Doctor Strange sequel may also be one of the MCU’s longest films to date.
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An Epic Runtime — A new listing for the film on the Brazilian ticketing website Ingresso claims that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will run 148 minutes long. That’s exactly how long Spider-Man: No Way Home was, which suggests that the scope of Multiverse of Madness will at least match, if not exceed, the MCU’s most recent big-screen entry.
Most of the MCU’s previous solo superhero outings have stuck fairly close to the 120-135 minute range. Therefore, this runtime suggests that Multiverse of Madness will be the latest in what is a growing list of “standalone” Marvel movies that run longer than that.
Given what’s been shown of Multiverse of Madness in its previous trailers, that probably won’t come as much of a surprise to most Marvel fans. That said, it’s worth noting that this runtime shouldn’t be considered official quite yet. The film doesn’t hit theaters until May 6, so it’s entirely possible that its listed runtime could be updated in the coming weeks.
Time Enough in the Multiverse — If Multiverse of Madness really does run nearly two-and-a-half hours, that means the MCU film may actually have enough time to do as much as it wants without having to rush over anything.
The Doctor Strange sequel is not only set to feature a sprawling cast of established MCU characters, but will also deal directly with the events of WandaVision, No Way Home, and possibly Loki Season 1. In case that wasn’t enough, previous Multiverse of Madness trailers have also confirmed that several new characters, including Patrick Stewart’s Professor X and a handful of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) variants, will also appear.
To say that’s a lot for just one film to try and do would be an understatement, and fans will have to wait until Multiverse of Madness is released to find out exactly how well it manages to juggle all its different characters and plots. However, if it really is as long as Spider-Man: No Way Home, that means the upcoming film has a good chance of pulling off everything it wants to.
The Inverse Analysis — This reported runtime, even if it is accurate, doesn’t tell us anything about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ story that we didn’t already know. However, it does confirm that the Sam Raimi-directed Doctor Strange sequel will be just as big and sprawling as Marvel has long promised that it would be.
A 148-minute runtime also suggests that Multiverse of Madness may have enough room to squeeze in several surprises and twists that its trailers haven’t even hinted at yet.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters on May 6, 2022.
