The following contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, in theaters now.
Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron teased the future of Stephen Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
After fighting alongside Earth's mightiest heroes in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and emerging as a trusted mentor of potential Nexus Being America Chavez in Multiverse of Madness, Waldron hinted in an interview with ComicBook.com that Strange was "maybe better suited than ever to really be an anchor of the Avengers, and everything moving forward."
In horror movie fashion, the Sam Raimi-directed Multiverse of Madness ended with a chilling cliffhanger: a screaming Strange suddenly sprouted a third eye from his forehead, a consequence of using the Darkhold against a villainous Scarlet Witch. "The Multiverse has forced a mirror up in front of his face, and has made him do some self-reflecting, that I think he's refused to ever do," Waldron said. He added, "Even when he got into that initial [car] accident [in Doctor Strange], instead of really thinking about who he was, instead he went and just became the most powerful sorcerer alive. This is a guy who doesn't want to go to therapy. I think now, there's been some forced self-reflection over the course of this adventure, and I think he's probably more capable than ever at working as part of a team."
Waldron commented that the suspenseful ending tied into Raimi’s previous films. "It was a little bit of a throwback to [Raimi's] old Evil Dead, and that groaner of an ending, or it's just like, 'Oh my God, things turned out bad in the end.' So, yeah. We'll see what all that means for Stephen." Strange uses the dark magic of the Darkhold to Dreamwalk into the corpse of a variant Stephen Strange, drawing from the same kind of corrupting power that the Ancient One called on as the former Sorcerer Supreme of the MCU. Considering that Strange went so far as to possess his own corpse, Waldron said, “Surely, there must be some fallout.”
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness currently has the largest domestic opening weekend of 2022 after earning $185 million at the box office. By comparison, the previous titleholder, The Batman, grossed $134 million in its first three days. However, the film is tied with 2011's Thor for the second-worst CinemaScore rating in the MCU. Eternals, which was released in 2021, remains the lowest-ranked MCU film, with a B score.
Directed by Sam Raimi, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in theaters now.
Source: ComicBook.com