Warning: this story contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. “It was never going to work out between us,” Dr. Christine Palmer tells ex-lover turned superhero sorcerer Stephen Strange in Doctor Strange 2. “Because, Stephen, you always have to be the one holding the knife.” Though the romance between Christine (Rachel McAdams) and Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) isn’t destined to be in this universe — or any universe — McAdams says the opening of the multiverse means infinite possibilities for Christine after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which ends with an introduction of a new leading lady for Strange: the sorceress Clea (Charlize Theron).
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“I mean, it’s a great gig. So I wouldn’t be sad to keep going with it,” McAdams, who returned to the MCU for the first time since 2016’s Doctor Strange in a voice role for the animated What If…?, told Variety of continuing Christine after Doctor Strange 2. “It’s a fun part. And I liked that she’s gone in different directions now. And now that the multiverse is open, you know, anything could happen. The world’s your oyster.”
Earth-616’s Christine is last seen marrying a man who isn’t Stephen Strange, but McAdam doubles up to play a variant, the Christine of Earth-838: the home universe of the Illuminati, whose judgment doomed a Dreamwalking Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch) to die on the planet Titan. Though there’s a hint of a connection between 616 Strange and 838 Christine, the risk of an incursion — a collision between two universes that destroys them both — means each counterpart must stay in their respective realities.
In a previous interview with IndieWire, McAdams revealed original plans had her playing three Christines when the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) pursues Strange and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) across the Multiverse.
“It did change a little bit from what I was originally told, [which was] that it would be three different versions, and we wound up with two different versions in the end,” the Notebook star said. “But they said I’d be playing a very different version of the Christine Palmer I played in the first film, that I wasn’t an emergency room doctor, just a completely different person with a completely different life experience.”
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, with Michael Stühlbarg, and Rachel McAdams, Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now playing only in theaters.
