Doctor Strange 2 Inspired by Anthony Bourdain and Indiana Jones, Writer Says

When you think of Marvel’s Doctor Strange, a reality-bending, cosmos-shifting neurosurgeon, do you also happen to think of Anthony Bourdain? You know, the late chef-turned-writer behind travel television classics No Reservations and Parts Unknown? That’s the case for Michael Waldron, writer on Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness, who says he took inspiration from both Bourdain and Indiana Jones for his first Marvel film.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Waldron (whose first Marvel project was writing Disney Plus’ Loki series) said he looked at Bourdain as an unlikely equal to Strange when it came to grappling with the world around him.

“I gravitated toward [travel documentarian and chef] Anthony Bourdain,” Waldron said. “Strange is an elitist as a neurosurgeon and a sorcerer. Anthony Bourdain was a man of the people, but there was that intense intellect. You always felt like he could eviscerate anybody with his words at any time. But yet, Anthony Bourdain never really punched down. That was the first ingredient in the stew for Doctor Strange.”