Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is shaping up to be the weirdest one yet by quite some distance, and that’s only partly due to the introduction of the multiverse. So far, the most bizarre installments in the world’s biggest franchise have been the irreverent cosmic antics of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange‘s unique visual aesthetic and the intergalactic buddy comedy of Thor: Ragnarok, but the MCU’s upcoming slate is truly out there.
WandaVision was an exploration of grief and tragedy built around a witch with a penchant for sitcoms, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness promises enough from the title alone, Eternals will span thousands of years and see the title characters pop up at various moments throughout history, Moon Knight is a nocturnal vigilante constantly suffering from an identity crisis, and Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to visit at least three different timelines, unless of course Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire don’t show up.
It remains to be seen what’ll happen on that front, but insider Daniel Richtman is claiming that the web-slinging threequel will be “trippy and mind-bending” in the same vein as Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange, which the series does admittedly have previous experience with thanks to the hallucinations forced upon Peter Parker by Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio in Far From Home.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is also the middle chapter in a loosely-connected multiversal trilogy, and as the bridge between WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, things were already set to get plenty weird even before Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sorcerer Supreme was confirmed for the cast, and he’ll more than likely have a major hand in whatever psychedelic trips Tom Holland winds up taking when the movie arrives in December.
