After Endgame, the Avengers are over. Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff are dead, Captain America’s old, and Thor’s left Earth. Only Hawkeye and Hulk remain from the original team and neither seems particularly interested in putting together a new crew. But Earth’s Mightiest Heroes could be back sooner than we expect, though not as we know them.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will almost certainly expand on the plot lines established in WandaVision, which may see Wanda Maximoff crack open the boundaries between parallel Earths to bring back her children. While we’ve heard whispers that the story will take us to Fox’s X-Universe, sources close to WGTC – the same ones who told us Rachel McAdams would be returning for the film – say that we’re also going to see alternative versions of the MCU’s most famous heroes. Meaning we’ll get an alternate Iron Man, alternate Cap, alternate Black Widow, etc.
Personally, I think it’d be fun if these were nods to actors who were once considered for the various Avengers. For example, Emily Blunt was signed up to play Black Widow in Iron Man 2 but couldn’t take the part due to scheduling conflicts. Other ‘parallel dimension’ casts would include John Krasinski or Jensen Ackles as Steve Rogers, Liam Hemsworth as Thor and – although this might be extremely unlikely – Tom Cruise as Tony Stark. Heck, why not bring back Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner, too?
Marvel Studios are already doing a line of parallel universe adventures in upcoming animated show What If…?, so if some of those prove popular, we may see future multiversal projects translating them into live-action. One thing’s for sure, with Doctor Strange 2 set to expand the MCU’s boundaries and Spider-Man: No Way Home confirmed to be bringing in villains from various Spider-verses (and hopefully a few heroes, too), we’re in for some crazy crossovers.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently filming and will hit theaters on March 25th, 2022.
