Apparently Spider-Man: No Way Home didn’t have enough multidimensional chaos for Marvel. Rather than a typical post-credits MCU scene, the movie ended with a trailer. Disney gave us our initial look at Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It’s the franchise’s first foray into horror. And now we know why it will be so terrifying. The Scarlet Witch might not be the film’s big bad like we thought. Instead she’ll be an ally to Stephen Strange as he fights a different nightmare. And we don’t just mean Baron Mordo. The universe faces annihilation from an evil Doctor Strange.
Guess we’ll have to rewatch What If…? a little sooner than we thought. Because that sinister version of Doctor Strange might be the Sorcerer Supreme we met on the animated Disney+ series. And we all saw what can happen when he isn’t stopped.
The trailer also marks the return of an enemy Strange created in his first movie. Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo is back with both a new hairstyle and a purpose. At the end of the first film he said the world had “too many sorcerers.” His quest to fix that will bring him face-to-face with his former student. Or, in this case, face-to-face-to-face. And that’s assuming we don’t see even more Strange variants (or split parts of his personality).
The doctor’s past actions also seem primed to haunt him in this film. To save Earth in his first movie he broke the laws of nature by reversing time. That act, combined with the Ancient One’s lies, pushed Mordo away from the order in the first place. And he warned Strange there are always consequences for such actions. Those consequences will involve splitting the multiverse apart. (Good thing Strange is a quick learner.)
Will those actions ultimately prove to be why an evil version of Strange threatens the entire universe now? We don’t know. But we sure are glad Wanda seems to be on Strange’s side. Those two will make for a formidable duo. Hopefully evil Strange doesn’t have his own Wanda too though. Now that would be a multiverse of madness.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness comes to theaters May 6, 2022.
