Doctor Strange didn't give Rachel McAdams much to do in 2016. While she had a meatier role in 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (where she played multiple versions of Dr. Christine Palmer), her talents still weren't fully utilised.
That wasn't lost on filmmaker Sam Raimi, who decided he wanted to work with the actress—giving her considerably more to sink her teeth into—on his latest movie, Send Help.
In fact, while promoting that, the legendary Spider-Man and Evil Dead helmer admitted that McAdams was "underutilized" in his MCU sequel.
"First, she was the perfect person because she’s such a brilliant actress," Raimi says in the video below. "I had a chance to work with her on my last film and saw how talented she was and actually underutilized, and I promised myself that I would work with her again. And then this film came up, and her warmth is wonderful."
He continued, "The fact that she has not really played a dark, terrible villain before—[producer Zainab Azizi] is the one that told me this—really sets the audience up to be surprised."
Marvel Studios has long struggled with the love interests in its movies, something we saw with Natalie Portman's Jane Foster. She eventually returned as the Mighty Thor, of course, but now that Strange has found Clea, Palmer might have run her course in the former Sorcerer Supreme's franchise.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness underwent many changes during production, with several cameos and subplots either altered or outright scrapped.
That's par for the course with Marvel Studios-produced blockbusters, and the movie ultimately did pretty well with a solid 73% on Rotten Tomatoes and over $955 million at the worldwide box office.
An even bigger sticking point for most MCU fans beyond McAdams' relatively small role was the Scarlet Witch's rapid descent into villainy after WandaVision. Elizabeth Olsen eventually said that Waldron "had not seen" the Disney+ series, a claim he denied last year.
"I liked continuing to explore Strange's need for control, especially in the wake of his experience in Infinity War/Endgame," the writer said in a Q&A with fans. "And this mirrored Wanda's own struggle with control following WandaVision (which, contrary to what the internet tells you, I was reading/watching all the way through)."
"And his last lines to Wong, about how saving the world doesn't necessarily make you happy," Waldron added, "just felt resonant for such a powerful yet lonely character."
You can hear more from Raimi on his reunion with McAdams in the player below.