Lila Clapp, Freshman
Attention readers! There will be spoilers for those who have not seen productions such as WandaVision, Loki and the latest Spiderman movie, Spiderman: No Way Home. Continue reading if you dare!
The delayed sequel to Marvel’s Doctor Strange is finally being released to theaters on Friday, May 6th, 2022. From the moment it received its title in 2019, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has been the most bewildering film of Marvel’s Phase Four.
What is the Multiverse? Before Loki, the Multiverse was a concept that the characters and viewers know such little about. According to Loki, the Multiverse was a tangled mess of realities at war with each other for trifling matters. All seemed lost until one scientist managed to meld all the timelines into one “Sacred Timeline.” The scientist, otherwise known as “He Who Remains” (Jonathan Majors), brought tranquility and disposed of all those who threatened the peace of the Scared Timeline, hence the creation of the Time Variance Authority, or TVA. Loki followed two variants of the God of Mischief, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) as they ventured to take down the TVA, which at the end of the day was successful. The TVA and the Sacred Timeline fell to chaos, and now, the raveled mess of realities that was the Multiverse stands again.
What do the viewers know about this film? From the two trailers that have been released so far, the plot will break down the aftermath of what Doctor Strange had to do at the very end of Spiderman: No Way Home. After Peter Parker (Tom Holland) kept prodding Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to leave out certain people in the spell that would make everyone who knew Spiderman forget Spiderman, a rift in the Multiverse opened. The rift allowed for several versions of Spiderman to come into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as several villains the other Spidermen faced. Pinning the outcomes of No Way Home on Strange, everyone from Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to a council of those who watch over the Multiverse promise that Strange’s actions will “not go unpunished.”
The original cast shall return with Benedict Cumberbatch as the mystifying Doctor Strange, Benedict Wong as Wong, the trusted sidekick and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Strange’s former mentor turned enemy. Rachel McAdams will return as Christine Palmer, Strange’s titular love interest. The trailer revealed her wedding to someone other than Strange, which Marvel fans found decidedly strange. Come what may, McAdams will be portraying variants of Christine, and may it be worth noting that in the What If...? episode where Doctor Strange went dark because he couldn’t have Christine in any reality that he created. Will these matters be a driving conflict in the upcoming film?
Aside from the original cast, many other established MCU characters will be joining Doctor Strange on his journey. As Kevin Feige revealed back in 2019, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), otherwise known as the Scarlet Witch, steps into the fray to add her own twist of dark magic to the realm. This addition also helps play off of the ending of WandaVision where Wanda was exploring the mysterious Darkhold book that contains a multitude of evil spells and curses. Last summer, news indicated that Tom Hiddleston will return as Loki, but Marvel never officially confirmed that this was true. Another Marvel actor returning to the stage is Patrick Stewart, for his voice was clearly heard in one of the two trailers produced. If Stewart were to be playing the famed Dr. Charles Xavier, this could be the first step in introducing the mutants into the MCU.
Come out to see the film in theaters tomorrow, May 6th, or wait until the movie is released to Disney+ in July 2022!
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