By the time Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives next March, over 64 months will have passed since Scott Derrickson’s series opener was released in November 2016, marking the longest gap ever between Marvel Cinematic Universe solo sequels, comfortably eclipsing the usual two-to-three year wait that the franchise tends to abide by.
It’s not a record the Sorcerer Supreme will hold for long, though, with a combination of James Gunn’s firing, the DCEU’s The Suicide Squad and the Coronavirus pandemic leading to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hitting the big screen six years to the day after its predecessor on May 5th, 2023.
The second installment for Benedict Cumberbatch’s fan favorite hero is still eight months away from being released, but insider Daniel Richtman has already cast his speculative eye towards the third outing, by saying that both Doctor Doom and the Fantastic Four will be involved in Doctor Strange 3. The tipster doesn’t have anything else to add, though, so we’re left with nothing to go on as to how their paths will cross or what draws them together or splits them apart.
That being said, the MCU does typically operate by the rule of three, so a Doctor Strange trilogy is a distinct possibility, and by the time the final chapter arrives, the Fantastic Four should be fully established in the mythology given that we’re all expecting Jon Watts’ reboot to drop in either late 2023 or 2024. How we get from there to a crossover between Marvel’s First Family and the Master of the Mystic Arts is entirely up for debate, but they’ve both got a penchant for going on weird and wonderful adventures, so it wouldn’t be the strangest mash-up we’ve ever seen from Kevin Feige’s all-conquering franchise.
