How Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Filmed Through COVID Explained

09/09/2021 12:27 am EDT

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to be an issue around the world it's become common for film and television productions to be temporarily shut down due to outbreaks of the illness or positive tests on set. However, production on Marvel's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness never stopped and now, the film's star Benedict Cumberbatch is opening up about the impressive feat, talking about the efforts that went into keeping the cameras rolling.

Cumberbatch told The Hollywood Reporter that there wasn't a single positive test on the production of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which shot in London during the pandemic's height in late 2020 and early 2021, noting that people made sacrifices in order to get the job done, something that he was really blown away by.

"I lost count of how many lockdowns we actually filmed through," Cumberbatch said. "With this government-approved gold standard testing and tracing and temperature taking and PCR and lateral flow tests. But it worked. And 500-plus crew came back after Christmas, and there was not one single positive test. We never stopped it. I got taken off, because of someone near me getting a false positive. But that was it. People made such sacrifices. Some of their children were going to school, and they weren't necessarily going to be sleeping in the same part of the house, or even in the same house. I was really, really blown away by that."

While it will be a bit before fans will get to see how all of that hard work pays off - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is expected to hit theaters on March 25, 2022 - fans will get to see Cumberbatch back as Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange later this year in Spider-Man: No Way Home and while the trailer for that film has fans speculating on every detail of the character's appearance, Cumberbatch said that Doctor Strange and Spider-Man have a close dynamic in the film.

"There's a close relationship," Cumberbatch explained. "They're neighborhood superheroes, and they've had an experience or two. They've got history. It might be the case that Peter asks me to help him do something? I think I'm allowed to say that much. I help him fill in his tax returns. That's what I do."

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is expected to hit theaters on March 25, 2022. In the meantime, Marvel's 2021 line-up includes Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which is now playing in theaters, What If..., which releases new episodes on Disney+ on Wednesdays, Eternals in theatres on November 5th, Hawkeye on Disney+ on November 24th, and Spider-Man: No Way Home in theatres on December 17th. 

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