Stephen Strange might be the least exciting thing in the trailer for his own movie. Well, normal Stephen Strange, anyway. There are at least a couple versions in here. It’s not called Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Mundanity, you know?
But there’s a new hero! A bunch of robots! And one very familiar voice…
Unsurprisingly, there seem to have been some repercussions from Strange’s actions in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Trailers are tricky and there’s no way to know exactly what’s going on, but multiversal hijinks aren’t exactly an unexpected side effect when you mess with the fabric of reality. A New York is coming apart, but whose New York? What happens in Strange’s dreams, and what’s his horrifying reality?
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A few things are clear: America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) has a big part to play. She comes from another dimension, can punch star-shaped portals between worlds, and has a fistful of superpowers (speed, durability, power, flight). All of which will certainly come in handy when fighting some kind of multiverse mayhem. (And, of course, the character in the comics eventually wound up in the Young Avengers—along with some other folks we’ve seen in recent MCU projects.)
Also, somebody—or several somebodys—are looking to serve Strange some consequences for what Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) calls his “desecration of reality.” Some uncanny robot soldiers seem to be leading Strange to a room with six elevated chairs, which may signal the appearance of Marvel’s Illuminati—an impression only strengthened by a voice that sure sounds like Patrick Stewart’s saying, “We should tell him the truth.”
Even leaving aside the Illuminati (a sort of superhero United Nations, kind of), bringing in Stewart as Charles Xavier explodes the possibilities—especially where Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) is concerned. If Xavier is here, why not Magneto, who’s Wanda’s dad? Maybe not in every universe, but at least in some.
And speaking of Wanda—now the Scarlet Witch—her role here is still vague. “You break the rules, you become a hero,” she says to Strange. “I do it and I become the enemy. That doesn’t seem fair.” (Side note: She is entirely correct.) In the midst of this, we see a bruised and plain-clothed Wanda visiting her Scarlet Witch self in Westview. A dream, or another reality?
We’ll find out when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness premieres May 6th.
