Whilst chatting with Raimi for his upcoming Quibi anthology horror series, 50 States of Fright, ComingSoon.net reflected with Raimi on the scene in which J.K. Simmons’ J. Jonah Jameson and Ted Raimi’s Ted Hoffman discuss possible names for Otto Octavius’ evil persona, Dr. Octopus. Before landing on the amphibious name, Hoffman offers Dr. Strange, to which Jameson appreciates but notes that it has already been taken, seemingly referring to the Marvel sorcerer.
“I loved Doctor Strange as a kid, but he was always after Spider-Man and Batman for me, he was probably at number five for me of great comic book characters,” Raimi described. “He was so original, but when we had that moment in Spider-Man 2 I had no idea that we would ever be making a Doctor Strange movie, so it was really funny to me that coincidentally that line was in the movie. I gotta say I wish we had the foresight to know that I was going to be involved in the project.”