While it arguably would have been a much bigger surprise had the marketing not revealed the majority of the team right out of the gate, something Kevin Feige admitted he wasn’t thrilled about, Marvel Cinematic Universe fans were still thrilled to see the Illuminati show up in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Of course, it didn’t take long before the entire cabal of superheroes was brutally dispatched by the vengeful Scarlet Witch, but given that the brain trust hails from the 838 universe, there’s realistically no reason why the various individual members couldn’t show up further down the line as different variants.
With that in mind, one enterprising supporter has asked their fellow Redditors which Illuminati alumni they’d want to see as the star of their own solo spinoff, and it didn’t take long for the comments to fill up with jokes.
To be fair, it’s not as if the group lends themselves well to taking center stage in their own project. Anson Mount’s Black Bolt barely says a word, and Marvel’s quip-happy formula hardly suits a protagonist who doesn’t talk. John Krasinski’s Reed Richards is the patriarch of Marvel’s First Family, so he’s not going to go it alone.
No offense to the legendary Patrick Stewart, but he’s an 81 year-old man who plays a character confined to a wheelchair, while you could argue that nobody really cares about Chiwitel Ejiofor’s Mordo at all. By the process of elimination that leaves Lashana Lynch’s Maria Rambeau and Hayley Atwell’s Captain Carter, both of whom definitely have what it takes to lead from the front.
