While we got the first movie of Doctor Strange back in 2016, we still haven’t seen a second one. Usually, the standard MCU sequel time gap is 3 movies, but since the MCU has been expanding massively since Phase 3 and that’s going to become even bigger by the time Avengers: Endgame comes to an end, the sequels will obviously take more time. Hence, Doctor Strange 2 will probably come out in 2021.
Just if you make a list, you will see that including Doctor Strange, Marvel has 6 franchises currently going on, and this list doesn’t even include the Avengers ensemble. Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man, Black Panther & Doctor Strange are the franchises that will surely spawn sequels. Apart from them, we also have the likes of Black Widow, The Eternals & probably Shang Chi coming in. So, if all these films were also to become franchises (at least 2 of them will), Marvel will have 9 franchises in the running with only 3 movies coming out every year. Then there is also the talk of the X-Men & Fantastic Four getting their own films.
So it is just impossible for them to keep up the pace of producing sequels and hence we will get a 4-5 year gap between all of them. In between those, we are getting so many other projects that we actually don’t feel the void of one character. Doctor Strange 1 came out in 2016, but we haven’t been missing him at all since a year later he popped up in Thor: Ragnarok, then in Infinity War, and now he will be back for Avengers: Endgame as well. So that’s Doctor Strange for 4 consecutive years.
Even though we are getting plenty of time between two films, we aren’t missing out on the character developments of all these heroes. Doctor Strange would have made it 5 years in a row as we all initially suspected Doctor Strange 2 to come out in 2020, but Director Scott Derrickson and writer C. Robert Cargill took their time to return, and hence the film is looking good for 2021 instead, with The Eternals taking its place in 2020. But it seems that Doctor Strange will not be the only big name in his solo movie. A little birdie told us that Namor the Submariner will make his debut in there as well.
Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson recently tweeted something, but he instantly deleted it after a short while. What that tweet has done is create conjecture amongst the people. Before he deleted it, people obviously got snapshots of it. Here’s the image which actually shows Namor. Have a look:
Now it is entirely possible that this was only done to stir some rumors and thoughts here and there, but we cannot deny the possibility of Derrickson slipping up and making a reveal way too soon. We know that he is working hard at developing a worthy sequel and it is still in its early days, so perhaps Namor could become a thing with this film.
Remember that Kevin Feige mentioned it last year that we are going to see Namor very soon in some way or the other. A solo Namor movie is a tough ask since his character rights are split between Universal, Fox, and Marvel. The Disney Fox deal will be an advantage for this character, even though Disney and Universal aren’t as close. So, Namor could very well get a Hulk-like deal where he pops up in different movies and adds solidity.
With Aquaman’s immense success, Marvel would also want to build upon Atlantis. It was believed that Namor could get introduced as a Black Panther antagonist, but it seems Marvel is planning to give him a push through Doctor Strange. Black Panther 2 is also supposed to come out in 2021, so perhaps Namor could have something to with both these films? Let’s see what Marvel does.
Doctor Strange 2 will probably hit the May 6, 2021 release date, or perhaps November 5, 2021.
