Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness introduced a live-action version of the Illuminati to the masses, including returning characters from other projects such as Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier and Anson Mount’s Black Bolt. Other new additions in the supergroup include John Krasinski as Fantastic Four patriarch Reed Richards and Hayley Atwell’s live-action debut as Captain Carter. That’s not to forget Lashana Lynch’s arrival as Captain Marvel. At one point, the Illuminati also included The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), though that was eventually scrubbed from the script.
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“Yeah, I think I watchedย Aliensย and was just thinking about the way those Marines get massacred, and, yeah, I was glad it worked,” Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron says during the film’s audio commentary (via The Direct). “I think originally, the Wasp was in a version of the Illuminati, and the Wasp shrunk down and flew at Wanda, and [Wanda] just clapped her hands and just smushed the Wasp in the first draft.”
Waldron and Strange producer Richie Palmer were the ones recording the commentary, with the latter adding Waldron most certainly swung for the fences with his scripts.
“Those Jonathan Hickman Illuminati comics were some of the greatest comics ever written, I think those New Avengers comics from the Secret Wars era,” Palmer adds. “But, Michael, I remember reading your first draft of the Illuminati stuff and just bring in disbelief, going, ‘She kills all the Illuminati? He had her kill all the Illuminati. We’re never going to be able to do this. Wait, can we do this? I wish we could do this.’”
Palmer applauds his bosses for not telling them to scale back, even though Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch murders the entirety of the Illuminati in the most brutal ways.
“Yeah, I was so scared someone was going to tell us we were going too far, and nobody ever did,” the producer continues. “Sam, you always helped us take it there. Kevin always encouraged us to push it further. Our other bosses, Louis D’Esposio, Victoria Alonso, everyone supported us every step of the way to push this movie.”
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse ofย Madnessย is now streaming on Disney+. What’d you think about the sequel? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or byย hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!
