Multiversal expert Doctor Strange finds himself at the center of the fandom’s confusing canonical storm

The lore of the MCU is ever expanding, and as such, it gets harder and harder to keep it consistent and tangible. We all remember the iconic moment in Infinity War when the Sorcerer Supreme looks into 14,000,605 possible outcomes from the Avengers’ showdown with Thanos, and grimly tells Stark that they only win in one. He must have just not got to the alternate timeline where they use the Ant-Man technique. Now, fans are wondering why Doctor Strange didn’t see an outcome similar to the one used by the Illuminati in Multiverse of Madness.

Since then, we’ve seen a couple of parallel universes where Thanos has been defeated, and quite easily might I add. One of these was featured in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as we saw the Illuminati beat Thanos without much fuss. Not only did they do it before he snapped his fingers, but they also won before he even left Titan. So if it was so easy for them, why could Strange only find one way of coming out on top?

This is what one fan has asked on the Marvel Studios subreddit, “Dr. Strange said there was no other way to defeat Thanos, but the alternative Avengers in MoM found another way, how does this work? Is an alternate universe different than an alternate timeline?” This started a discussion between fellow fans on the details of multiverses and alternate timelines.

Most of the explanations seem to provide an adequate reason for why Strange could only find one version of events where the team won the battle. Although there were some other pretty legitimate and hilarious answers.

“He found the one that won at 4:58, so he needed to clock out for the day before he could find a second. Avengers are union.”

Fair enough, good to know that the Avengers have a union, maybe we’ll see them on the picket lines alongside the writers and actors.

You may argue that the team doesn’t matter, the Darkhold is what was used to defeat Thanos, and Strange knew about it at the time. So was there no outcome where Strange was able to get that book and use it? Well, no, by the time he thought to look into the future, Stephen was already trapped on Titan with no way back home. Besides, he wouldn’t have known it’s whereabouts at the time.

“In the universe with the Illuminati the alternate Dr. Strange used the Darkhold to defeat Thanos, but in the movie MCU Agatha Harkness had it.”

On a separate thread, one fan theorized that Strange wasn’t just looking into alternate timelines, but was in fact timeslipping, a concept that has been introduced in Loki season 2.

If that were the case, then it would be a whole other debate, however, most agreed that the Doctor wasn’t timeslipping like the God of Mischief.

Although the second Doctor Strange movie does kind of make Stephen look like a fool for not realizing there was a very easy way to beat Thanos; his logic does seem to hold up. He had no access to the tools and weapons used by 838 Strange, he also had a different team, and by this point in the movie he was already trapped on an alien planet with limited resources.