Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness could become yet another Marvel Studios title not to be released in Chinese theaters.
The latest two films produced by the studio that enjoyed a Chinese release were Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019.
A series of titles followed, from Shang-Chi to Eternals at the center of some controversies, respectively the statements against China by the protagonist Simu Liu and director Chloé Zhao , which led to the jump in their distribution. Added to these are Black Widow and Spider-Man: No Way Home , which had passed state censorship but were not distributed.
In the case of Black Widow, we recall that Disney had asked to move the favorable release date assigned by the Chinese, which led to the film no longer receiving distribution.
The controversy
The reason? The controversy arose after the release of the first official clip, where a newspaper distributor is shot several times with Chinese characters on one side.
Da Ji Yuan Times is another name for the Epoch Times newspaper , a multilingual international newspaper and communications company that opposes the Chinese Communist Party.
Apparently, #Marvel‘s #DoctorStrange trailer integrates @EpochTimes?
Can anyone confirm or is that doctored?
If true, that’s either a balls-out move by #Marvel to send a message to Beijing…
Or a mistake…#Taiwan #Censorship #Hollywood https://t.co/IZIGjCX306
— Chris Fenton (@TheDragonFeeder) April 29, 2022
As if Disney and Marvel haven’t had enough problems with the China market, new trailer for movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness showed a newspaper box of the Epoch Times, publication of the Fa Lun Gong. https://t.co/UcHBqMA5xV
— Wenhao (@ThisIsWenhao) April 29, 2022
#辱华
漫威即将上映的电影《奇异博士2：疯狂的多元宇宙》，最新曝光的预告片段中出现了法轮功媒体《大纪元时报》的广告 pic.twitter.com/ImBLILSaGJ— 罗拉·罗拉💙💛#Free Shanghai (@RealRolanCehack) April 29, 2022
Doctor Strange 2 has been submitted to Chinese authorities for review, but the distribution has not yet been canceled or approved.
Reactions
Gavin reveals that discussions of Doctor Strange 2 in China have been censored due to the presence of The Epoch Times in the clip. And as we well remember, the censorship of the discussions on a film about to be released result in the non-distribution of the film.
Online discusses about Doctor Strange 2 in China have been censored due to the element of The Epoch Times in its clip. pic.twitter.com/pjtqMtJsNh
— Gavin (@gavinfeng97) April 30, 2022
As some Twitter users point out, this scene was shot on the streets of New York and not in a studio in Atlanta. And in the city of the Big Apple, this type of writing is very common, and people pay little attention to it because they don’t know Chinese.
Doctor Strange grossed $ 109M, in 2019 Avengers: Endgame grossed $ 629M in China.