Doctor Strange 2 Is The Biggest Hint Yet Of Where The MCU Is Headed

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness certainly lived up to its title, by giving Marvel fans a glimpse at the wider Marvel Cinematic Multiverse – and all the marvelous and/or horrible ways those different realities took shape. Like most Marvel movies, Doctor Strange 2 delivered a mix of self-contained story and the obligatory setup for the next stage of MCU storytelling. And while Multiverse of Madness may not have established the sort of game-changing new status quo some expected, it certainly did drop the biggest breadcrumbs yet about where MCU Phase 4 is headed with its larger story arc. 

(WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!) 

The clear pivot-point in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness comes when Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) Escape Scarlet Witch’s wrath during the “Battle of Kamar-Taj” and arrive in the dimension of Earth-838. That reality saw leaders from the full roster of Marvel Comics heroes (and a few variants) band together to form “The Illuminati.” When the Illuminati become aware of Strange in their reality (via Karl Mordo), they arrest him and bring him in for judgement. As the Illuminati see it (and John Krasinski’s Reed Richards explains) Stephen Strange is the greatest threat to reality. Strange of Earth-838 used the evil Darkhold book of spells to gain the power needed to defeat Thanos. However, he was corrupted by the Darkhold and caused an “incursion,” between realities which ended up annihilating a different one. The Illuminati was forced to kill their version of Strange to protect the multiverse – but fear Doctor Strange of Earth-616 is headed down a similar path. 

The Illuminati’s fears of Strange-616 prove true; in the third act of the film, Strange and Christine Palmer-838 (Rachel McAdams) are banished to another universe where an “Evil Strange” also got corrupted by the Darkhold and destroyed his own universe. By the end of Multiverse of Madness, Earth-616 Strange has also made the choice to use the Darkhold in order to fight Scarlet Witch – and the third eye that appears in his forehead suggests the corruption is already taking hold. The cycle is still turning. 

So where is all headed? 

MCU SECRET WARS IS COMING

Ever since the Loki Disney+ series, Marvel fans have been more sure than ever that the next big MCU event will be an adaptation of the Secret Wars crossover of the 2010s Marvel Comics. Well, Doctor Strange 2 certainly makes it seem like that will be the case. 

The 2015 Secret Wars was (in a larger sense) a method for Marvel Comics to scale-down its various alternate-realities (Ultimate Marvel, Marvel 2099, Age of Apocalypse, House of M, etc.) back into a more streamlined timeline. The story premise for that transition saw a mass collision of all the various Marvel Multiverse realities in a cataclysmic event that destroyed ALL reality. Doctor Doom used a combination of cosmic power and sorcery to pull bits of the various realities into one fragmented amalgamation of them called “Battleworld.” In that literal new world order, the roles of Marvel heroes and villains are wildly shaken up, as various figures conquer and control the “territories” of remaining reality, with Doom ruling as god-king of it all. However, Reed Richards and other Marvel characters escape the collapse of realities on a life raft and arrive on Battleworld with sole knowledge that reality has to be fixed. 

Loki opened the gates of the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse and set loose the collision of realities we started to see in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has just shown us how varied those realities can be, while introducing characters who either have vast knowledge of the multiverse (John Krasinski’s Reed Richards) or the power to travel across it (America Chavez). MoM also set up characters like Strange, the Illuminati, and Scarlet Witch to join Sylvie in the circle of responsibility for causing a series of events that will lead to the destabilization of all Marvel Cinematic realities. 

The New MCU

As stated, the purpose of Secret Wars was to condense Marvel’s comic book realities into one streamlined reality, in which fan-favorite characters and plotlines were cherry-picked from the various realities and imported into the main Marvel 616 Universe. After Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it seems like the MCU will do something very similar – for different reasons. 

Marvel Studios has been teasing the arrival former Marvel Fox properties (X-Men, Fantastic Four) in the MCU. The only question has been: how will the franchise explain the arrival of these characters in the MCU reality? Well, by the time Secret Wars plays out, Marvel Studios will have the exact storytelling device they need to reboot the MCU with the entire roster of Marvel Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four characters – and hopefully a new Spider-Man or two (Miles Morales) as well. 

Will this New MCU arrive in Phase 4? It’s hard to say. The scope of everything Marvel Studios is doing right now could carry on well into Phase 5. 

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now playing in theaters.