There’s going to be an awful lot of narrative ground to cover in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness if even half of the various casting rumors and plot speculation turns out to be true, and that’s without even mentioning the major repercussions from both WandaVision and Spider-Man 3 that it’ll be forced to deal with as well.
In terms of specifics, we don’t know much other than a vague synopsis that outlined pretty much the exact same information we could gather from the title of the movie, but as we’ve seen over the last five weeks on Disney Plus, the MCU’s multiverse is more than capable of throwing up some big surprises and twists that come out of left field.
On that note, the latest report is claiming that three major comic book characters are set to debut in the Sorcerer Supreme’s sequel, and the trio will set the stage for the Illuminati. As per the rumor, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Reed Richards and Charles Xavier will appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, although that’s about as far as the story goes in terms of specifics.
Of course, the Illuminati have regularly been linked with a role pulling the strings behind the scenes in the franchise, but it’s going to take an awful lot of exposition to introduce three brand new characters, two of whom audiences have already seen before played by more than one different actor, explain what they’re doing in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and let people know who the Illuminati are within the context of the MCU without detracting from the story being told.
It sounds like a huge balancing act, but we’ll have to wait on further details before taking this one at face value given how little we know about the project so far and the limitless possibilities presented by the premise.
