Last August, it was reported that Community creator and Rick & Morty co-creator Dan Harmon had been enlisted by Marvel Studios to write last-minute rewrites on the Doctor Strange script that started with Jon Spaihts and was rewritten by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill. 

In true internet fashion, many wondered why such a last-minute touch-up was necessary. Was this proof that Marvel Studios ultimately had no faith in the direction Derrickson and Cargill wanted the film to go in, and was there a reason for fans to worry? Given Harmon’s comedy background however, there were someone who speculated that he was brought on to punch up the jokes in the script so that it was more in line with the other Marvel films, but the studio stayed mum on the development…until now.

Speaking with EW, Marvel head Kevin Feige finally copped to the rumor and clarified Harmon’s actual role in Doctor Strange:

“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.”

So interestingly enough, it wasn’t just the humor that Harmon brought to the table. If you’ve watched any of Rick & Morty, the show definitely capitalizes on some pretty high-minded science fiction concepts and dials it up to eleven. In all honesty, more often than not, I find those very concepts, and the execution of those concepts a lot more endearing than the humor in the show — which I find to be overly-crass and too try-hardy (and no, before you ask, that’s not a word).

If the trailers for Doctor Strange are any indication, it looks like they’ll be capitalizing on similar mind-bending concepts in action scenes throughout the film, so I can imagine someone with Harmon’s mindset could have been incredibly helpful on that front.

What do you think of Feige’s comments? Do you think Harmon has a lot to contribute to Doctor Strange on the science fiction front? Let us know in the comments down below!

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SOURCE: EW