Doctor Strange 2 Alternate Ending Revealed by Writer
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness screenwriter Michael Waldron has revealed a sinister alternate ending. In the finished film, the Stephen Strange of Earth-616 (Benedict Cumberbatch) traverses the multiverse and kills Sinister Strange, his evil variant corrupted by the Darkhold. After using The Book of the Damned's dark magic to dreamwalk through the multiverse — murdering other Stranges as he searched for a world where he could be with Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) — this Strange triggered an incursion, causing his reality to collapse in on itself. This annihilated reality is left behind following Sinister Strange's death, and 616 Strange returns to his universe with his supernatural third eye opened.
In the alternate ending revealed by Waldron on the digital release's audio commentary, "Strange gets trapped in that [incursion] universe … and then [Sinister Strange] turns around, and the third eye opens." Punctuating the twist-ending switcheroo was to be the laugh of horror icon Vincent Price, reminiscent of Price's narration on Michael Jackson's Thriller.
"That's the bill coming due. As Wong says, 'You used the Darkhold to possess your own corpse.' Surely, there must be some fallout," Waldron exclusively told ComicBook about the film's final scene, in which Strange's third eye painfully appears after using the Darkhold to save multiverse traversing teen America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) from the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). "It was a little bit of a throwback to [director Sam Raimi's] old Evil Dead, and that groaner of an ending, or it's just like, 'Oh my God, things turned out bad in the end.' So, yeah. We'll see what all that means for Stephen."
Instead of trapping Strange in Sinister Strange's reality destroyed by an incursion, Doctor Strange 2 ends with a different cliffhanger as the Master of the Mystic Arts meets a new sorcerer: Clea (Charlize Theron) of the Dark Dimension.
"The Multiverse has forced a mirror up in front of his face, and has made him do some self-reflecting, that I think he's refused to ever do," Waldron noted. "Even when he got into that initial [car] accident [in Doctor Strange], instead of really thinking about who he was, instead he went and just became the most powerful sorcerer alive. This is a guy who doesn't want to go to therapy. I think now, there's been some forced self-reflection over the course of this adventure, and I think he's probably more capable than ever at working as part of a team."
Directed by Sam Raimi, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/the Scarlet Witch, Benedict Wong as Sorcerer Supreme Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo, Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, and Charlize Theron as Clea.
Doctor Strange 2 releases on 4K UHD Blu-ray and DVD on July 26 and is now streaming on Disney+.