Director Scott Derrickson Discusses Dan Harmon's Contributions To 'Doctor Strange'

President Kevin Feige and key decision makers at Marvel are big fans of Community, which was made clear after they first hired directors Anthony and Joe Russo. Feige is also a fan of another show Dan Harmon is responsible for, Rick & Morty, a science-fiction series with some terrific concepts. Feige and filmmaker Scott Derrickson appreciate the far-out ideas explored in that series, as well as its often ingenious structure, so they brought him in to work on some scenes before they did reshoots for Doctor Strange. His feedback on an early cut was invaluable.

Below, learn about Dan Harmon's Doctor Strange contributions.

Feige has previously stated Harmon's thoughts on the movie were as important as any jokes he might've written for the movie, which is about surgeon-turned-sorcerer Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) expanding his mind. After Harmon saw a cut of the film, he explained what he thought did and didn't work. He then went on to rewrite a few scenes, nothing major.

According to Derrickson, Harmon's take on the movie was enormously helpful (source: Moviefone):

He came in, saw a cut of the movie, and had a really striking analysis. Because he hadn't read any of the scripts and didn't know the Doctor Strange mythology and I'm not sure how much of a comic book fan he was. But he saw the movie, loved it, and had some breakdown things that were very helpful. That alone was probably his biggest contribution.

Harmon helped tighten some sections for the reshoots. Not too many of his jokes made it in the final film, though:

There are some jokes that might have stayed in there, but for the most part, the scenes were a little too out in Dan Harmon-land, even for Doctor Strange. But I really love the guy and I really think he made a significant contribution in the process. He was the voice we needed to hear at the time, and I will always be thankful and watch anything he does. He's a brilliant dude.

One scene it's speculated Harmon worked on was Doctor Strange's battle of wits with Dormammu. During an episode of the Harmontown podcast, fans spotted a file titled "Strange Confronts Dormammu" on Harmon's computer (via Heroic Hollywood). If he did write a version of that scene, who wouldn't be curious to see how far off it went into Dan Harmon-land? Even if not many of the scenes or jokes he wrote made the final cut, it's a testament to Harmon as a storyteller that his thoughts alone on Doctor Strange were a major contribution to the Marvel production.