‘Doctor Strange 2’ Faces Censorship in China After Epoch Times Newspaper Box Appears in Clip: Hollywood Executive

China’s ruling communist regime likely isn’t going to allow Marvel’s new movie, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” to open in China’s theaters, after an Epoch Times newspaper box made a brief appearance in a clip from the movie, according to a long-time Hollywood executive and film producer.

Chris Fenton, author of “Feeding the Dragon: Inside the Trillion Dollar Dilemma Facing Hollywood, the NBA, and American Business,” said it was already “a bit of a long shot” for the new “Doctor Strange” movie to be released in China after several Marvel movies didn’t get into the Chinese market.

“This recent development of The Epoch Times being seen as one of the major stars in the movie, is definitely throwing a wrench in any sort of shot that they did have of getting into that market,” Fenton said in a recent interview with EpochTV’s “China Insider” program.

The yellow newspaper box, bearing the Chinese characters 大紀元時報 for the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times, appears for a few seconds in a clip from the movie. It sits in the background during a battle between Doctor Strange and a one-eyed monster named Gargantos on the streets of New York.

The Epoch Times is known for its uncensored coverage of current affairs in China, including political infighting within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the regime’s human rights violations against ethnic minorities and religious groups, and Beijing’s propaganda and influence operations abroad. It was founded by Falun Gong practitioners who were facing persecution in China for their faith that teaches people to live according to the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The Chinese-language edition is the largest-circulating newspaper among overseas Chinese communities.

Like many Western media outlets and social media platforms, the English- and Chinese-language websites of The Epoch Times are banned in China.

The chance of the new movie being shown in China is “probably now nonexistent,” Fenton said, but people will not know why since “China never [lets] you know for sure why they’re banning any particular movie.” He said Beijing has a habit of being ambiguous, and not just in banning movies.

“The Chinese government never fully tells you why they’re penalizing a company. In fact, a lot of it is speculation. And quite frankly, that speculation creates a wider net of self-censorship because you’re never sure exactly what they’re mad at,” he said.

By Frank Fang and David Zhang

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