Theories about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness draw connections to the looming emergence of Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
From a Reddit thread, the events in Multiverse of Madness could be one big misunderstanding that puts the blame on Doctor Strange while the true villain plots behind the scenes.
According to this theory, Strange is blamed for his mishandling of time in Doctor Strange, Infinity War, and most recently in Spider-Man: No Way Home. In the trailer for Multiverse of Madness, Strange is brought before a mysterious council who fans believe could be Marvel’s Illuminati, a clandestine group of superheroes making important moves from the safety of the shadows.
Here it’s believed that Strange is put on trial for his manipulation of the timeline — but the Illuminati don’t know about the Time Variance Authority. In the Disney Plus series Loki, the TVA was responsible for “pruning” the timeline and making sure that any variants were taken care of to keep the Sacred Timeline intact. At the end of the series, He Who Remains (a Kang variant and head boss of the TVA) is killed by Loki’s variant, Sophie, which creates the alternate branches that will lead to a multiverse war.
With the idea that Kang is going unnoticed as the leader of the TVA in order to rally his forces, fans have quite a lot to say on the matter.
Some fans don’t believe that the multiverse was created in Loki, but that the Sacred Timeline joined into a pre-existing multiverse.
Others argued that the multiverse was created in Loki because the What If animated series featured universes similar to the main MCU timeline.
An alternate take points out that the multiverse has always been in existence, and that Strange is the cause of this. The Illuminati’s vantage point — that of being outside the MCU timeline — could grant them a broader understanding of multiversal affairs.
With Kang teased in the Loki finale and the confirmed villain for Ant-Man 3, fans hope to see him appear in Multiverse of Madness.
For some, there simply isn’t enough information to properly gauge where the story is going to go. With something as massive and mysterious as the multiverse, the possibilities are literally infinite.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness comes to theaters on May 6, 2022.