Doctor Strange: In The Multiverse Of Madness Trailer Includes Lines & Moments From Sorcerer Supreme What If Episode

What if the trailer for Doctor Strange 2 put a live-action twist on Marvel’s animated Strange Supreme? In the official first trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the sorcerer Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) faces the consequences of the dangerous spell cast to make the world forget Peter Parker (Tom Holland) in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Accused by Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) of desecrating reality, Strange reunites with Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong) to face the greatest threat to the Marvel Cinematic Universe: a sinister Stephen Strange. 

A dark mirror of Stephen Strange from another dimension, a grief-stricken Strange threatens the entire Multiverse in his quest to resurrect his love Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) in Marvel’s What If…? “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” 
says Strange of abusing dark magic, corrupting him into the twisted Strange Supreme seen in the animated Disney+ series.  

Once imprisoned by The Watcher (voice of Jeffrey Wright) to prevent the destruction of the entire omniverse, this dark Strange later helps The Watcher’s Guardians of the Multiverse defend all realities against an Infinity Stone-wielding Ultron (voice of Ross Marquand). 

“I never meant for any of this to happen,” the live-action Strange says in the trailer for Multiverse of Madness, where his reality is soiled by similar dark magicks seen in What If…? See side-by-side comparisons in the video above. 

Marvel Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum, Head of Streaming, Television and Animation for Marvel Studios, previously hinted animated counterparts introduced in What If…? could return or crossover with the main MCU timeline — in live-action. 

“I really believe the deepening fictional mythologies is a way to appreciate them more, is a way to understand them more, look at them in a different way. They’ve got now two seasons of What If…? ideas underway that’s some of the best storytelling we’ve ever had that you may see spin into other mediums,” Feige teased in the What If…? making-of special Marvel Studios: Assembled. “It’s really the most uniquely beautiful animated series I’ve seen in a long time.”

A second season of Marvel’s What If…? is now in development for Disney+. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opens only in theaters on May 6, 2022.