Multiverse of Madness is Marvel's last step in blowing the hinges off the MCU
If other MCU properties teased the multiverse, one beautiful british voice as part of the trailer for the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel was enough to indicate that things are about to get nuts
If there’s one concept that’s been front and center in Marvel’s Phase 4, it’s the multiverse.
WandaVision teased us with something that was ultimately nothing. Sylvie cleared the only blockade that was stopping multiple realities from manifesting by stabbing He Who Remains in the LOKI finale. And Dr. Strange let some of those alternate realities swim in the same pool during the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
It’s been a logical progression throughout and a smart one at that. For Marvel to immediately throw the full force of the multiverse at us would feel cheap and unearned. It would’ve felt like a ploy to quickly reel the masses back in when the conclusion of the Infinity Saga may have had their interests drift elsewhere.
Of course, Marvel is better than that. You don’t build what they’ve built over the course of I honestly don’t even know how many movies and shows at this point without exuding a bit of patience with an eye for planning. Thus explaining the crumbs that have grown in size with each of the aforementioned properties. And if the latest trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is any indication, the feast de resistance is on its way.
The return of Sir Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier would traditionally be the big reveal of any superhero movie. We’re talking about an OG superhero whose presence basically confirms the existence of the X-Men somewhere within the MCU. That’s a secret you want to keep hidden so its theatrical reveal can generate reactions on par with the likes of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
But Marvel played that card in the trailer, which can only mean one of two things:
Somebody in the video editing room royally forked up
Xavier’s presence only scratches the surface of what’s to come
I doubt Marvel would make a mistake like that, which is why I’m going with No. 2. It also makes sense given all the rumors that have circulated about who will show up in this movie. John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic. Ben Affleck reprising his role as Daredevil. Tom Cruise playing a variant of Iron Man.
We can even see a bit of Captain Carter’s shield in the film’s official poster.
Professor X’s appearance and the setting in which those few seconds take place also indicates the arrival of Marvel’s Illuminati. According to Marvel.fandom.com, the Illuminati are “a covert think-tank (that) met in secret for a number of years sharing information and strategy, operating relatively successfully initially, despite their unique traits and considerable differences in nearly every way.” The group consists of Professor X and Doctor Strange but also Namor, Black Bolt, Mr. Fantastic (which plays into the Krasinksi rumors), and Iron Man (which plays into the Cruise rumors).
If this theory is true, that means Doctor Strange’s actions in No Way Home got the attention of some very significant people from at least one different reality, and I doubt Multiverse of Madness will be the last we see of them.
This is the start of something my brain is honestly having a hard time processing, and this is before I even know the full extent of what exactly I have to process. Strange opened the floodgates to problems spanning a vast number of realities intersecting with one another. Think of this scene from New Girl but will all the spices and instead of spices its bad guys and instead of shakers its realities. We’re talking about a big mess.
And whatever lengths Strange and the rest of the Illuminati will probably go to in an attempt to halt as much multiversal madness as possible, those plans are likely to be thwarted by none other than Wanda Maximoff.
In the footage we’ve seen of Wanda at her garden across both trailers, she seems to be doing better from the last time we saw her. She shows remorse for Westview. She seems willing to help Strange. By the second trailer’s end, however, we can tell she has a serious ax to grind, and I can’t say I blame her. Strange opens the multiverse and nobody seems to care. She imprisons a few dozen people in a fake reality for a few weeks and an entire swat team shows up with her repossessed boyfriend to try and kill her, forcing her into isolation.
When repercussions aren’t dolled out equally, why care about them at all? You also have to remember that with all this talk about the multiverse (as well as the post-credit scene for WandaVision), if Wanda doesn’t know of a reality where her sons still exist, she’s going to try and find one.
So, the Illuminati can do what they can to try and bolt the doors to alternate realities down. The Scarlet Witch is coming with the sledgehammer that is her powers more realized than ever, and the MCU will never be the same because of it.
After all, it’s her destiny to destroy the world. Maybe destroy is a placeholder for “smashes it together with alternate worlds.”
It’s funny. I was worried about the future of the MCU after Endgame. What could possibly top the masterpiece that was the finale to an unprecedented 23-film story?
Turns out the answer was fairly simple: Go bigger. Literally. Expand the boundaries of what we thought was even possible within a cinematic reality that had already defied so much conventional wisdom.
Marvel might not have needed as much time to set up the multiverse as they did when building out the Infinity Saga. Some time to separate from the previous era and foundation building for the future one was needed regardless.
Now, the stage is set for all of it to pay off, and there’s no going back after that.