The Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Super Bowl trailer delivered a number of big surprises, including what appears to be the entirely unexpected MCU debut of Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier. But another big one was the ‘Strange Supreme’ introduced in Disney Plus show What If…? making his way into live-action.
In the critically acclaimed episode “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” we saw a variant of Strange using every magical trick he can think of to save Dr. Christine Palmer’s life, which leads him to harness otherworldly powers that turn him into a monster and destroy his universe. Despite his corruption, he goes on to join the ‘Guardians of the Multiverse’ in the finale and helps save reality.
However, a new synopsis of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness from the Filipino theatre chain SM Cinema summarises the plot as:
“Dr. Stephen Strange casts a forbidden spell that opens the door to the multiverse, including an alternate version of himself, whose threat to humanity is too great for the combined forces of Strange, Wong, and Wanda Maximoff.”
This apparently confirms that Strange Supreme will be the villain, with the closing comment potentially hinting that we’ll see Strange, Wong, and Wanda fail to stop him and be forced to consult the extradimensional group led by Stewart’s Professor X.
Then again this may also be someone at the chain giving their impression of the plot based on the trailer rather than any official synopsis coming from Marvel Studios. Judging by Strange Supreme’s slightly warped yet heroic morality in What If…? it feels like a safe bet that there’s more to him than a simple cackling villain.
Whatever the case, with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arriving in just over a month’s time on May 6 expect to learn more about the movie very soon.