Despite losing its director, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is still scheduled to be released in May of next year. Very little is known about the sequel besides the fact that it ties in with two future Disney Plus shows, WandaVision and Loki, but a new plot synopsis has now leaked online that sheds a bit more light.
Backstage, a casting website for actors to search for roles, posted a blog detailing a summary of the upcoming Marvel film. Of course, it may not be official given that it doesn’t come straight from the studio, but here’s how it reads:
“After the events of Avengers: Endgame, Dr Stephen Strange continues his research on the Time Stone. But an old friend-turned-enemy puts an end to his plans and causes Strange to unleash unspeakable evil.”
Interestingly, the first sentence reveals that Strange recovers the Time Stone, despite the fact that Thanos destroyed all of the Infinity Stones between Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. But we’re talking about the Sorcerer Supreme here. He either manages to regenerate the stone using his enhanced powers or he just hops in Tony Stark’s time machine and enters a separate timeline. Ah, stakes. Who needs them, right?
The second part of the summary, meanwhile, indicates that an “old-friend-turned-enemy” returns to thwart Strange’s plans. The obvious answer to this riddle is that the old friend is none other than Baron Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor). When we last saw him, he and Strange disagreed over how best to protect the Earth. Also, why would you cast an actor of Ejiofor’s talents, keep him alive at the end of the first movie, and not use him for sequels?
The friend forcing Strange to “unleash unspeakable evil” is also in line with reports that the sequel will involve more horror elements in the story than the first movie. But not too many, according to Kevin Feige. Too many and he’ll boot you off the film entirely. Just ask Scott Derrickson.
Again, though, this plot summary doesn’t come from Marvel and so, parts of it could be inaccurate. Still, it doesn’t sound too outside the realm of possibility and with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness gearing up to start production soon, we’ll hopefully learn more in the coming months. Stay tuned.