Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness continues its theatrical run across the globe, becoming the highest-grossing film of the year to date with over $800 million in box office revenue. The Multiversal sequel made its mark with dozens of characters from Marvel lore, featuring everybody from the Illuminati to the MCU's first Minotaur in Rintrah.
Throughout the promotional tour for Doctor Strange 2, Rintrah found himself becoming a big part of the sequel's supporting cast alongside his fellow sorcerers in Stephen Strange and Wong. He was seen in a couple of quick shots from early trailers, he got his own solo poster - heck, Entertainment Earth even gave him the honor of being immortalized as a Funko Pop! figurine!
When the final cut of the film rolled out on May 6, the giant green Minotaur only appeared in a couple of scenes and was relegated to the battle and clean-up at Kamar Taj. However, a recent behind-the-scenes video provides evidence that Rintrah was once in line for a bigger supporting role in this expansive and explosive sequel.
More Rintrah in Doctor Strange 2?
Twitter user @DrStrangeUpdate shared a set video from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that included more footage for Rintrah, played in the film by Adam Hugill.
The video shows a CGI actor climbing up the side of Mount Wundagore alongside a few of Kamar Taj's other sorcerers. That actor, likely doing the motion capture for Rintrah, is the only one that survives Wanda's blasts of Chaos Magic.
This scene likely comes either when Wong is fighting off Wanda and her new demon minions or when Doctor Strange dream-walks into his own corpse in order to stop Wanda from taking America Chavez's powers.
The full video can be seen below:
Was Rintrah's Role in Doctor Strange 2 Bigger?
Rintrah is one of Marvel Comics' most powerful magic wielders and considering his placement in Doctor Strange 2's marketing tour, it's a bit of a surprise that he wasn't included in more of the movie. However, with six weeks of reshoots and countless different versions of the story that Marvel went through, the fan-favorite character may have just gotten lost in the shuffle.
Head writer Michael Waldron recently discussed early ideas for other characters like Nightmare to be in the sequel, which could have been a version of the plot that included more of Rintrah. It's unclear when this footage was initially shot, but with the character being shown on Mount Wundagore, it's clear that his role could have been as big as Wong's while Strange used the undead to fight Wanda.
Whatever happened behind the scenes, Rintrah only ended up with a couple of lines and a few minutes on screen, mostly being tortured by Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff at Kamar-Taj. There are no signs pointing to whether Marvel Studios will use the character, but given how much the MCU continues to expand, anything is surely possible.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now playing in theaters.
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