Marvel Star Rachel McAdams Explains Being Erased From Doctor Strange 2 Teaser

You’re not going mad: Doctor Strange 2 promos digitally erased Rachel McAdams. The Notebook star returns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Dr. Christine Palmer, the newly married one who got away for sorcerer superhero Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). A teaser trailer for Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness showed Palmer at the doorway of a multiversal portal with Strange and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), but a TV spot reusing the shot edited that footage to remove McAdams, making it appear as if she was cut from the scene.  

Calling her disappearance from the teaser a “mystery,” McAdams told Extra, “Even I don’t even know what this means. Am I being erased? Oh, God, am I in this movie? I don’t know.”

McAdams does appear in the Doctor Strange sequel, possibly playing the MCU Christine and a multiversal variant. 

“I know, I mean, it’s tough… that I am in the multiverse, but you wanna keep exactly what kind of person in the multiverse sort of a secret,” she explained. “So maybe that’s why they took that out.”

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Nearly a decade after their split in 2016’s Doctor Strange, Christine has moved on from ex-lover Stephen Strange. Though Christine is “very happy” to be marrying a man named Charlie, McAdams said of her complicated relationship with Strange: “I would say they are still working it out.” 

“I think they’re still figuring out where they land in terms of love and friendship, and this incredible shared history they’ve had which has become even more complicated since the first film,” McAdams said. “So trying to pick up those pieces and assess the landscape, and then I think they just have this deep, profound love for one another which will transcend time and universes.”

Even after the events of Avengers: Endgame, McAdams believes the surgeon-turned-sorcerer hasn’t changed much in terms of his relationships. 

“It’s hard to kill an ego like that. It kind of, I think it can sneak back up easily,” she said. “It’s a lifelong journey to work on that, so I think he’s still in therapy.”

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Xochitl Gomez, with Michael Stühlbarg and Rachel McAdams, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is playing exclusively in theaters on May 6.