When the first full-length trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness debuted during the Super Bowl, cleaving the internet in two with Patrick Stewart’s voice cameo, fans instantly assumed that Sam Raimi’s sequel would be introducing famed comic book brain trust the Illuminati.
Since then, nobody involved with the Sorcerer Supreme’s sequel has confirmed or denied anything, but confirmation may have arrived via the most innocuous of sources. As you can see below, the latest issue of Empire magazine has done a deep dive on Multiverse of Madness, with the accompanying caption on one of the images directly naming the Illuminati for the first time in a semi-official capacity.
Now that the cat may have been let out of the bag, we can expect the rumor mill to explode into life all over again. After all, Charles Xavier has always been presented as a key member of the group, but Stewart remains the only member to have been overtly introduced in the marketing so far.
An Iron Man variant played by someone other than Robert Downey Jr. has been another popular line of inquiry, as has Inhumans leader Black Bolt, Namor, and Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards. That would be an earth-shattering moment in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness were all of those aforementioned names to cameo, but we don’t have too long left until we get our answer.
Reshoots may still be ongoing, but Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is only seven weeks away from coming to theaters on May 6.