"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is finally here, and it's as trippy as the
trailers suggest.
So what was going on in that Illuminati scene?
And what's up with that mid-credits cameo?
Keep watching to find out.
Stephen Strange spends much of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" in a state of
distress.
"The multiverse.
It's dangerous."
By the end of the film, he seems to have mostly resolved what was troubling him.
He manages to hold out long enough for Wanda Maximoff to see the error of her ways, set
a lot of things right, and even keep America Chavez safe from harm throughout their adventures
together.
But he's also, as Wong points out at the end of the film, used an alternate universe Darkhold
to Dreamwalk and possessed his own alternate universe corpse.
We know from Stephen's multiverse journey that holding on to the Darkhold even a little
too long can corrupt someone's mind.
We saw it with Wanda and with the alternate Stephen Strange who admitted to killing his
various multiversal selves along his path to madness.
Our Stephen seems fine right up until the very last shot, when he collapses in pain
on the streets of New York and reveals a third eye in his forehead, like the one his evil
variant had.
By the mid-credits sequence, he seems fine with that third eye, suggesting he's adjusted
to its presence.
Is Stephen okay, or are we witnessing the Master of the Mystic Arts falling from grace,
just like versions of him from other universes?
It'll be fascinating to see what the next adventure holds for a man who faces so many
threats not just to his body, but to his sanity.
Much of "Multiverse of Madness" deals with pre-existing Marvel Cinematic Universe characters,
but it does introduce one major key player: America Chavez, a young woman with the power
to punch open portals to other universes, and can thus navigate the entire multiverse
with a swing of her fist.
When we first meet America, she's on the run, as the Scarlet Witch works to corner her and
steal her power for herself.
By the end of the film, with the Scarlet Witch problem seemingly solved, America has settled
down in the MCU proper, learning magic at Kamar-Taj under the tutelage of Wong and seemingly
embracing the kind of home she's found among the superheroes.
All this primes America for future adventures in the MCU, whether she's fighting alongside
Doctor Strange or meeting other heroes along the way.
There's still plenty for her to do in a very personal way, including searching for her
two mothers after she accidentally knocked them through a portal as a girl, but as a
fighter in her own right, there's even more potential.
In the comics, America is a key member of the superhero team known as the Young Avengers,
which also includes characters like Kate Bishop, aka Hawkeye.
Since Kate is alive and well in the MCU already, it would be both welcome and understandable
to see those two team up sometime soon.
Whatever she ends up doing, though, America has a bright future.
In "Spider-Man: No Way Home," we learn that Wong is actually the Sorcerer Supreme, because
he was around while Stephen Strange vanished during the Blip, leaving him in charge by
default.
It seemed like a bit of a throwaway joke, but by the time of "Multiverse of Madness,"
it's clear that it's far from a gag.
Wong takes his work seriously, something we've known since we met him back in the first "Doctor
Strange" film, but not just because he's a serious person.
He clearly carries the burden of being the Sorcerer Supreme in a dignified, courageous
way, and it shows through his actions in the film.
Even when the fight gets more personal, and when Stephen is forced to separate from his
friend and colleague, Wong fights on.
Though it sometimes feels hopeless, he just keeps marshaling the forces of magic in the
MCU to combat the threat of the Scarlet Witch and her Darkhold.
By the end of the film, he's proven himself a survivor and he's won a new level of respect
from Doctor Strange himself.
Now, it falls to Wong to attempt to rebuild the magical order of things in the MCU.
With so many sorcerers taken down during the battle, he's in charge of replenishing the
ranks.
"No pressure, then."
And based on how well he's handled everything else, it seems all those beginner sorcerers
are in very good hands.
For much of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," we're dealing with a character
who looks and sounds like Wanda Maximoff, but it's not quite the Wanda we know.
Instead, she's the Scarlet Witch now, the long-prophesied magic user first introduced
in "WandaVision," who has taken on an all-consuming quest to be reunited with her lost children,
Billy and Tommy.
"This is going to be fun."
The Scarlet Witch means well, of course, but the madness caused by continued use of the
Darkhold has corrupted her mind, making grief over the loss of her children into a power-hungry
drive to go through anyone and anything to get what she wants.
That makes her a terrifying yet sympathetic villain figure who only really stops when
she realizes how frightening she's become not to her friends, but to her own children.
Wanda's solution is to destroy the Darkhold, in all forms.
That means the book disappears in every universe, but the throne atop Mount Wundagore in which
she's sitting when she makes her decision also crumbles with her inside.
That said, we never see her die.
It's entirely possible that Wanda is still out there somewhere, waiting for the moment
she can continue her redemptive journey.
Early on in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," as the Scarlet Witch prepares
to assault Kamar-Taj to capture America Chavez, Wong uses his influence as Sorcerer Supreme
to turn the magical sanctuary into "a fortress."
He brings in all of his students and arms them with weapons both magical and non-magical,
prepares hidden defenses around the building, and even calls in the leaders of the Sanctums
in both London and Hong Kong to help with the fight.
Sadly, despite all their magical energy, this army of sorcerers is not enough to hold the
Scarlet Witch back.
This means that a key defensive part of the MCU's core planet has been compromised, and
while Wong's working hard to fix that, there are vulnerabilities that the more nefarious
figures in the MCU might be able to exploit.
So, who will come for the sorcerers, and how long until they realize they have an opportunity?
In "WandaVision," MCU viewers were introduced to the concept of the Darkhold, a book of
magical spells and secrets that could grant its user untold power, but at the terrible
cost of their sanity.
By the end of the series, the book was in the hands of Wanda Maximoff, and by "Multiverse
of Madness" she was using it to learn Dreamwalking, the forbidden magical practice of invading
the lives of others in the multiverse.
Sounds like a real …
"Nightmare."
But "Multiverse of Madness" also revealed that the Darkhold has an opposite number:
The Book of Vishanti, a book of light magic that has the potential to unlock even more
magical secrets for its user, including how to navigate the multiverse.
By the end of the film, both books are severely compromised.
The Book of Vishanti has lost spells, while the Darkhold is apparently destroyed in every
universe, leaving its secrets potentially lost forever.
But anyone who's been watching the MCU films and shows for long enough knows that two great
MacGuffins can't be kept out of the picture for too long.
The Darkhold had a secret copy in at least one universe, while the Book of Vishanti could
potentially exist in others.
They're in bad shape right now, but we wouldn't be surprised to see both books make future
MCU appearances in some form.
While traveling through the multiverse, Stephen Strange eventually visits an alternate Earth
that includes an extremely high-tech version of New York City, where he's taken captive
by that universe's Sorcerer Supreme, Mordo.
"The Illuminati will see you, Stephen."
Mordo eventually reveals that he's a member of The Illuminati, a secret society of heroes
that includes Reed Richards (played by John Krasinski), Captain Marvel (played by Lashana
Lynch), Captain Peggy Carter, Patrick Stewart's Charles Xavier from the X-Men, and Black Bolt.
The scene is obviously noteworthy for the sheer number of cameos it packs into the film.
By the end of the sequence, that Earth's Illuminati are in shambles, with all but one of them
very dead.
That means we probably won't hear from this Illuminati again, but it definitely doesn't
mean we'll never hear from any Illuminati again.
The 616 universe already had a Captain America, a Captain Marvel, and a Sorcerer Supreme,
but this scene heavily implies that a 616 version of Reed Richards, Charles Xavier,
and Black Bolt are still out there somewhere.
In "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," we met an alternate universe version of Karl
Mordo, a former ally of Strange who became the Sorcerer Supreme when that universe's
Strange was executed for his sins by the Illuminati.
This version of Mordo is very suspicious of the Prime MCU Strange — but after a brief
struggle over the fate of the Book of Vishanti, he basically disappears from the film, left
to pick up the pieces in his world.
Mordo's brief but significant appearance in this film is, of course, a reminder that the
main MCU version of Mordo has basically been absent from the entire narrative since 2016's
"Doctor Strange."
At the end of that film, the sorcerer who helped train Strange grows disillusioned with
the new Sorcerer Supreme and quits, but it's later revealed that he's roaming around sapping
other magic users of their powers.
Why?
"Too many sorcerers!"
We haven't heard anything from that version of Mordo since.
Perhaps a third Doctor Strange adventure will shed some light on his whereabouts.
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" marked the return of several key characters
in Stephen Strange's life, but one of the most interesting was the inclusion of Christine,
Stephen's former surgical and romantic partner, who's moved on with her life in the years
since he became a Master of the Mystic Arts.
As the film begins, Stephen is suiting up to attend her wedding to another man, where
she assures Stephen that their romance would never have worked because, in her words, he
always "had to be the one holding the knife."
Their reunion is, of course, interrupted by a giant monster terrorizing New York City.
Later in the film, Stephen gets to continue a version of that conversation with an alternate
universe version of Christine, who actually gets to work helping him in his quest to stop
the Scarlet Witch.
Though they don't actually know each other, their experiences create a kind of kindred
feeling, which allows Stephen to finally say what he's wanted to say for years: That he
truly loves Christine, in any and all universes.
It's a moment of peace and honesty in a relationship that was otherwise built on quite a bit of
posturing, and it feels like something that allows both of them to move on from their
losses.
There are plenty of loose ends in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," but
Stephen Strange's personal journey isn't necessarily one of them.
He's solved the issues at hand in the story, made it back home, and even made some kind
of peace ... until he's confronted in a mid-credits scene by a mysterious woman in purple robes,
played by Charlize Theron.
This woman warns him that another "incursion" is happening, due in part to his adventures,
and that she needs his help to stop it.
She even dares him by asking if he's afraid, sending Strange headlong into another dimension
for yet another adventure.
This woman is Clea, one of the first major supporting characters in Doctor Strange comics
lore.
Raised in the Dark Dimension under the watchful eye of Dormammu, she eventually becomes the
Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimension, and at one point even takes over for Strange as
the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth.
She's smart, powerful, and capable of warping the world of Doctor Strange forever.
We don't yet know exactly where the next adventure will take Stephen Strange just yet, but with
Clea at his side, we know it'll be something worth watching.
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