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MCU fans believe that Strange Supreme will appear in Multiverse of Madness, but he’s not the only variant who may drop in.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Spider-Man: No Way Home, currently playing in theaters.
The highlight of the new trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was the reveal of the antagonist to be a variant of Strange himself, who proclaims the Prime Marvel Cinematic Universe Strange a threat to all of reality. The most obvious candidate for the doppelganger is “Strange Supreme,” a variant who appeared in a notable episode of What If…? and nothing yet suggests it will be otherwise. The Multiverse, however, isn’t limited to just one variant, and as one Redditor has pointed out, there’s no reason why Multiverse of Madness should be any different.
The implications of director Sam Raimi at the helm of the new movie after scoring a huge early Marvel success with the first three Spider-Man movies are massive. And as the Reddit theory expounds, it might have major implications for the MCU in Phase 4 and beyond. In fact, Raimi’s Spider-Verse has more connections with the MCU than it first appeared.
Strange Supreme first appeared in What If…? Season 1, Episode 4, “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” He destroyed his own reality in an attempt to change the unchangeable — absorbing the essence of a number of unsettling spiritual creatures in the process — and was left imprisoned in a tiny pocket dimension floating in the void that once held his universe. He struck a deal with the Watcher to help defend the rest of the Multiverse in Season 1, Episode 8, “What If… The Watcher Broke His Oath?” and agreed to do so again if the need arose. That makes him an easy candidate for the second Strange in Multiverse of Madness — acting again to protect reality from what he believes is an existential threat from the prime MCU Strange.
As the Reddit Theory points out, however, this isn’t the only time Strange has been mentioned in a Marvel movie. A throwaway line in Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 — made as J. Jonah Jameson attempts to coin a name for Otto Octavius — reveals that some form of Doctor Strange exists in the world of those movies. The events of Spider-Man: No Way Home make it clear that the Avengers don’t exist there, but a number of other figures might, which the Redditor spells out. They include the likes of Daredevil, the Hulk, Namor and Black Cat constituting a version of the Defenders whom the Raimi-Vere’s Strange could conceivably lead.
The appeal of the theory is that it brings in a number of figures who have yet to appear in the MCU. That includes the Hulk, which according to the theory, would be Eric Bana’s version of the character from the 2004 Ang Lee movie rather than Mark Ruffalo’s MCU version. Those rights, and those of Namor’s, aren’t entirely clear when it comes to the MCU, but should some deal have been made, the theoretical Defenders team would make a splashy way to do it. It might also provide an opportunity to give Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man a curtain call as a member of the Defenders, letting Raimi direct the actor in the part once more.
All of this would be speculative, however, were it not for one piece of firm evidence that has turned up in support of it. A Marvel Legends figure entitled “Defender Strange” will be released around the time of the movie, wearing a red-and-black outfit and distinct connections to the MCU. If that Strange is going to appear in Multiverse of Madness, other Defenders might as well. And since Daredevil has already appeared in No Way Home, the remaining characters make a reasonably comics-accurate assembly of the team.
More importantly, it suggests the existence of more than one variant Strange in the film. If Defender Strange joins Strange Supreme and the Prime MCU model, there’s no telling how many more versions may crop up. Raimi never entirely lost the mischief-making instincts of the Evil Dead movies, and Defender Strange might give him the chance to go wild with the concept by showing the audience considerably more Strange variants than three.
To see if Defender Strange is another variant, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives in theaters May 6, 2022.
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