Back in August, Marvel raised some eyebrows when they announced that Dan Harmon was stepping in to fiddle around with the script of Doctor Strange. Harmon is the creator of Community and co-creator of Rick and Morty, both extremely funny shows, so everyone pretty much came to the same conclusion: Marvel realized that Doctor Strange needed some humor, and Harmon was just the right man for the job. Now, Marvel’s president Kevin Feige, who’s been making the rounds and revealing all kinds of things lately, has confirmed that, yes, Harmon was brought on to add some spice to the Doctor Strange script.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Feige spoke about Harmon stepping in to add some comedy to the film:

It is true that he was. He came in, he watched the movie. We are all big fans of his work, clearly. We at Marvel Studios are fans of Community, it’s where we found Joe and Anthony Russo, who came onboard to do Winter Soldier, and of course Civil War, and the upcoming [Avengers] films. So, we’re big fans of that. We’re also fans of his cartoon Rick & Morty, which is about, of course, humor, but I would argue that any given episode of that show has an unbelievably amazing sci-fi concept that could be its own movie. So, really, we just wanted him to watch the movie, and talk to us about it, and give us his opinions on the sci-fi concepts. That was as important to us as any humor that he could add to the movie. And he was very, very gracious in doing that.

It’s true that Rick and Morty has tons of sci-fi tidbits hidden in every episode that could be the basis for entire franchises to be built from. But it’s also not surprising that Harmon’s humor was a main reason why he was brought on to consult. It’s not entirely unheard of, especially recently, for a film to try to add in some humor at the eleventh hour — just look at those rumor-soaked Suicide Squad reshoots after Warner Bros. put out that fun “Bohemian Rhapsody” trailer. Companies behind superhero movies are learning that audiences respond extremely well to humor (Deadpool and Ant-Man, anyone?) because, let’s be real, superheroes can be a little silly sometimes. Overall, audiences would rather have fun while watching things blow up, rather than be forced to listen to dreary Batman v. Superman-style faux-philosophizing.

Doctor Strange, now with more humor, hits theaters November 4.

 

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