Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness hinged its pivotal second-act turn on the introduction of the Marvel Illuminati, a cabal of the most powerful Marvel heroes in the reality of Earth-838. The scene revealing the members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Illuminati was one of the biggest teases in the Doctor Strange 2 marketing – the least surprising reveal in that sequence was the entrance of Patrick Stewart’s Professor X of the X-Men movie franchise. Stewart’s voice was a dead giveaway in the very first trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but now, one VFX artist is giving his big entrance some of the novelty it lost…
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Once you see the Illuminati’s meeting chamber as a glorified skate park, it’s impossible to unsee it that way. Charles Xavier looks like he had the best time riding the rails – as he should have, as we all know that it would be the last time he ever got to have any fun, at all. Xavier’s death during some psychic cat-and-mouse with the Scarlet Witch was on the level of classic Sam Raimi horror. We are all, still, shook from it.
However, after Doctor Strange 2’s release, Patrick Stewart teased that he is game to return as Professor X yet again: “Charles Xavier? Yeah. There may be [more],” Stewart told Variety. “You know, the whole X-Men comic series is so huge, so vast, there might be an opportunity in which he comes back. We’ll see.”
The Illuminati were positioned as the guardians of the MCU Multiverse – or at least the most knowledgeable people about it that we’ve met so far. One of the leading theories about this current Phase 4 arc of the MCU is that it will climax with an all-out war between realities – a war that could have easily been set into motion by Scarlet Witch’s invasion of Earth-838 and slaughter of the Illuminati. With Patrick Stewart established as the Charles Xavier of one reality, there’s no reason he cannot return as the Xavier of another reality – if not the version of Prof. X we know from Fox’s X-Men movie continuity. Who wouldn’t want to see Stewarts Xavier show up for a crazy cameo in Marvel’s Deadpool 3?
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now streaming on Disney+.