Doctor Strange 2: Kevin Smith "Feels Dumb" After Not Recognizing Patrick Stewart's Voice

When Marvel Studios released the official trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness during the Super Bowl earlier this month, there were plenty of exciting moments for in said trailer, but one that made the internet collectively lose its mind. While the trailer featured a few different variants of familiar characters, including multiple versions of Doctor Strange, it was the voice of a character that thrilled fans like nothing else: a scene in the trailer revealed Benedict Cumberbatch's protagonist taken in front of a group of mysterious figures and one of them just so happened to sound an awful lot like Patrick Stewart, the legendary actor who played Charles Xavier in the X-Men films. But while fans went wild upon hearing that voice, there's one Marvel fan that didn't quite get it right away. Kevin Smith revealed during a recent episode of Fatman Beyond that he didn't recognize  the voice right away — and he feels pretty dumb about it.

"I'll tell you man, I feel f-cking dumb…" Smith said. "I watched it 10 times and every time I watched it I was like, 'Oh, I wonder who the British person is.' Then I f-cking saw P-Stew f-cking trending and sh-t and was like, 'Oh my god, did he die?' But it's everyone else on the planet going like, 'I know that voice! That's unmistakable! That's P-Stew!' Then I went back and listened and I was like, 'oh.'"

While Smith didn't immediately recognize Stewarts voice, fans did and immediately began speculating as to what it could mean. In particular, fans started speculating that Professor X's presumed appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness might be part of a larger appearance of the shadow Marvel organization called The Illuminati, given the setting in which that particular moment in the trailer occurred. As for Stewart himself, however, the actor recently broke his silence about the trailer, suggesting that it was someone else using his voice, rather than him actually appearing in the film.

"You know, people have been imitating my voice ever since I came on the stage 60 years ago," Stewart said. "So, I can't be held responsible for that."

After Spider-Man: No Way Home and Andrew Garfield's denials that he would appear in the film before its release only for his appearance, along with that of Tobey Maguire, ending up being a critical part of the blockbuster film, Marvel fans probably aren't quite ready to just accept Stewart's suggestion.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opens in theaters May 6th.