Doctor Strange 2: Charlize Theron Shares Official Image of MCU Debut

Charlize Theron is officially part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tuesday afternoon, the actor shared the first official look of her character in an Instagram post. Theron posted a pair of pictures, one of her presumably in a makeup trailer showing a close-up of her makeup and the other, an official still from the filming showing her character — the sorceress known as Clea — looking off-screen alongside Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch).

Her caption for the photo reveal was simple enough: “Meet Clea,” the actor wrote.

Clea, of course, is one of Strange’s most powerful allies in the Marvel source material. Multiverse of Madness scribe Michael Waldron said earlier this week that it was always a goal to introduce the character at some point throughout the movie.

“We always knew we wanted to introduce Clea, who in the comics is you could say the great love of Doctor Strange, but really in a lot of ways is his formidable equal as a sorcerer herself,” Waldron told Deadline. “Her backstory is fascinating. She’s the niece of Dormammu, the giant floating head from the first movie. And so, they have a lot of great adventures in the comics, and we knew we wanted to introduce her, but it felt like we had to close the book to some extent on his love story with Christine Palmer, Rachel McAdams’ character.”

In addition to being an ally, Strange and Clea have also found themselves married at various points throughout the years. As it currently stands, Clea recently took the last name of Strange and has filled in as Sorcerer Supreme in the light of the sorcerer’s untimely death.

In a separate interview, Waldron added that he was aware of the general MCU place Multiverse of Madness resided in, but he had some leeway in fleshing out the film.

“There is a general plan in place, and you know where you’re falling chronologically, which movie will lead into you, what you might lead into,” he told NBC News. “But the mandate is always to make the best “Doctor Strange” movie you can possibly make — and if you do that, then it will organically align with the other stuff in the MCU. That’s the name of the game: make great stuff.”

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now showing exclusively in theaters around the world. What’d you think about the sequel? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!