Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness' Surprising Runtime Has Fans Buzzing

"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" will be Stephen Strange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) first solo movie since 2016. Set in the wake of "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which saw Strange and Peter Parker (Tom Holland) accidentally unleash villains from Spider-Men past on the MCU's New York City, the new movie will see Strange investigating the multiverse. We know he'll be enlisting the help of Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) along the way, as well as meeting a new character in the form of America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez). And in typical MCU fashion, there are also enough rumors about the upcoming film flying around to fill, well, the multiverse. 

All in all, the movie has a lot of promise. Not only will viewers be getting to spend some more time with one of the MCU's most intriguing characters in Doctor Strange himself, but we'll also get to check back in with Wanda following the aftermath of "WandaVision." But just how much time will viewers be spending with these old friends? A recent announcement involving the "Doctor Strange" sequel gives the impression that the Sam Raimi-helmed film won't have a minute to spare — quite literally.

With just weeks to go before "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" hits theaters, the film's official runtime has quietly been released. According to its Fandango listing, the new MCU movie will run for two hours and six minutes. Given the amount of content teased in the trailers, the runtime does come as slightly surprising. The "Doctor Strange" sequel will clock in as the shortest Phase 4 MCU film so far, running nearly 20 minutes shorter than "Spider-Man: No Way Home," a full half-hour short of "Eternals," and exactly the same amount of time as 2008's "Iron-Man."

While many MCU fans might want as much time on screen with their favorite characters as possible, it seems many are actually reacting positively to the new movie's relatively shorter runtime. As Twitter user @YesItsMeGabriel pointed out, previous MCU entries likely alleviated the need for lots of time-consuming exposition. They wrote, "Makes sense. No Way Home and Loki kind of already set the table for this movie."

Meanwhile, other Twitter users appeared happy due to their perception that MCU movies have grown too long. "I wont have to suffer 30+ minutes of agonizing pain like with endgame, infinity war, no way home," wrote @NickBrady4222, while another user argued generally, "Movies don't need to be longer than 2 hours"

And as noted by @MaminMarvel, "Its just Sam Raimi's kind of runtime.. He dont do long long movies." Indeed, of the director's 21st-century releases, "Spider-Man 3" is his longest at two hours and 19 minutes.