The last few weeks have been weird, to say the least. People around the country have been social distancing and staying at home, and the comics industry has been dealing with its own specific weirdness with no new single issue comics having shipped for three Wednesdays in a row now. At this point, it seems safe to say we’re all just doing what we have to to get by and stay sane in this new reality we’ve found ourselves in. This morning Marvel, either as a way to help people get through their day or as a sign that they’re also starting to lose it a little bit, began a livestream on YouTube of ambient sound and picture from outside the Sanctum Sanctorum of Doctor Strange. As of this posting, the stream is into the fifth hour of its planned 10-hour runtime.
The camera for the stream sits outside the Greenwich Village location. It does not move. Doctor Strange has so far not yet appeared, but there are occasionally lights, sounds, and movement from within the Sanctum. Sometimes a person with a dog walks by. Currently it’s early morning – it was dark when I turned the stream on about twenty-five minutes ago, and bells rang for 7 AM at around 1:05 PM Eastern. I just heard someone get out of a car and lock their door. A dog barks in the background. Sometimes cars drive by. It’s really just the ambient noise of being outside.
And I kind of can’t bring myself to turn it off.
Some viewers in the YouTube chat have identified that this is just a looping video, which makes sense. But is it leading to something? The upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness film has been in the news lately, with director Sam Raimi confirming his involvement, but no official announcement to that effect has come yet from Marvel Studios. Could this livestream be counting down to something to that effect?
Oh! A bunch of weird creatures just appeared!
Anyway. Maybe this is a sign that I’m losing it more than anything else. Either way, the stream is scheduled to last until 8 PM Eastern, so if you’ve got a long workday ahead of you, or you’re just looking for something a little different to listen to or watch today, this should have you covered.
