Back in August, we reported that Community creator Dan Harmon had been brought in to secretly punch up Marvel’s Doctor Strange and write some script pages for “additional photography.” Without any concrete details, we theorized that he was either there to simply make the film a little funnier or to set up some future Marvel work—former Community directors Joe and Anthony Russo are making the next two Avengers movies, after all. But his contributions ended up being a lot more subtle than that.
As revealed in a Moviefone interview with Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson, nothing Harmon wrote actually made it into the film, but he was still “very helpful.” Apparently, Harmon came in, saw an early version of the film, and gave Derrickson a “really striking analysis.” He explains that Harmon hadn’t read any scripts and didn’t know much about the comics, so he was able to offer a fresh perspective and “break down things” in a way nobody else could. Derrickson doesn’t go into specifics, but the implication is that whatever Harmon said was so vicious that it opened up everybody’s eyes to the film’s issues.
After that, Harmon “went off and wrote different things” for the movie, and though some of his jokes “might have stayed in there,” most of what he came up with was “too out in Dan Harmon-land” to really fit. Still, Derrickson walked away impressed with Harmon, saying he’s “a brilliant dude” and “proper genius.” So, while we can’t necessarily give Harmon credit for the solid wi-fi password gag or the “Mr. Doctor” exchange in Doctor Strange, it does seem like the movie was better because of his involvement.