13 Burning Questions We Have After Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Yeah, we’re just jumping right the heck in. Near the end of Multiverse of Madness, Wanda decides to destroy Mount Wundagore, because it holds the secrets of the Darkhold, but it seems like she stays inside, taking herself with it. The logical assumption is that Wanda is gone.

But let’s be serious here. She’s the most powerful being in the multiverse. Do we really think she’s gone? She’s also a hugely popular character in the MCU. We can’t say for sure, but our read here is that Wanda is like Boba Fett in Return of the Jedi: Presumed dead until a story is written to bring her back to life.

The only thing more shocking than meeting members of the Earth 838 Illuminati (John Krasinski as Reed Richards, Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau’s Captain Marvel, Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter, and Patrick Stewart as Professor X) is to see them all die. This is the MCU we don’t see major heroes die like that. They always come back.

But this is also the Multiverse. Just because this Captain Carter or Reed Richards died in this universe doesn’t mean every version is dead. That leads us to believe that, yes, Earth-838 Reed Richards, Captain Carter, and Professor X are all, indeed, dead, but many other versions still remain. The one exception might be Captain Marvel because her death is not as definitive but, she’s still probably dead.

This feels like a story that could be in What If...? season two but, think back to Captain Marvel. How much really would have had to change for Maria to go on the mission that Carol went on and then, their entire existence basically flip flop? Probably not too much. We imagine it’s something like that, and maybe we’ll find out one day.

Even before Disney acquired Fox, giving the company the movie rights back to Fantastic Four, fans had cast The Office’s John Krasinski as Reed Richards in their minds. So that Marvel agreed and actually put him into the role with a movie on the way, it’s a super fun surprise.

This Reed Richards dies, though. So the question becomes, now that we’ve seen John Krasinski as Reed Richards, and considering all other versions of characters look exactly the same across the Multiverse, will John Krasinski return for the Fantastic Four movie? Officially, Disney would not offer a comment. But unofficially, if we had to guess, we’d say yes. It would be unnecessarily confusing in later years to rewatch this film and a Fantastic Four film and the role be played by different actors. Not that it is impossible (see War Machine and Hulk) but if it can be avoided, it usually is.

Just in case you weren’t sure: it’s confirmed in the credits that Black Bolt is played by none other than Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Anson Mount, who played the character on the short-lived ABC series, Inhumans. This then leads us to the next question...

I mean, maybe? Sure, this was the Black Bolt of another Earth, but still... we have to ask. Now that we’ve seen the same actor (Anson Mount) play the same character (Black Bolt) in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, that more or less makes the entire show canon (yes, even Medusa’s wig). But not in the “You have to see it to understand the next Avengers movie” way. More in the way all the Spider-Man movies are now canon, maybe Inhumans is just out there—maybe it takes place in a different multiverse, not the main MCU one. So, it’s out there, it happened, but not in the same world as the majority of the movies up until this point.

Chiwetel Ejiofor returns as Karl Mordo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but not in the way we think. We only meet Mordo of Earth-838, a member of the Illuminati who is still a rival to Doctor Strange. At no point do we see Earth-616 Mordo, the one from the previous Doctor Strange movie, who turned his back on the teachings of Kamar-Taj and vowed to strip sorcerers of their power. Has he succeeded? Where is he? We don’t know and the movie doesn’t address it.

The mystery woman who shows up to bring Doctor Strange back into the multiverse is Clea, played by Oscar winner Charlize Theron. In the comics, Clea is an interdimensional traveler who eventually settles on Earth, marries Strange, and becomes Sorcerer Supreme herself. Will that happen in the MCU? Time will tell, but read more about her and the scene here.

The final moment before the credits of Multiverse of Madness shows Doctor Strange walking down the street, falling down in excruciating pain, and popping a third eye on his head. The implications here could be twofold. One thought is that our Dr. Strange is himself being dream walked by a Strange in another universe, but we don’t think that’s the case.

That’s because, don’t forget, our Strange meddled with the Darkhold, and the other Strange with the third eye explained that using the Darkhold changes a person. The third eye, we believe, represents Strange’s new, darker, more mystically enlightened self.

One of the more slightly disappointing aspects of Multiverse of Madness is that America Chavez never finds her moms who she lost in the multiverse early in her life. However, we believe this is very purposeful. First of all, the whole film leads up to America becoming able to use her powers at will, which she wasn’t able to before. Also, now that she’s learning the mystic arts at Kamar-Taj, she finally isn’t alone anymore. The events of this movie are big wins for America and now she has a goal for future movies.

This is a tiny one but, still something we wondered about. Obviously, Wanda is a very powerful witch who can see things other people can’t, but America is just one girl traveling across the multiverse. There’s no real explanation for how Wanda found out about her and targeted her. You just have to buy it. Which we do. But it’s still a little weird.

Near the end of the film, Wanda destroys not just the Darkhold on Earth-616, but apparently across all the multiverses. That seems like a very big deal both for any beings who were potentially already using it, but maybe even beings who had been controlled by it. Like, for example, since their struggle was directly related to the Darkhold, could destroying it have released Agatha Harkness from her Wanda-prison? Seems feasible. We’ll see if this ever comes up again.

When Strange and America are going through all the multiverses early in the film, there are surely tons of Easter Eggs in there. But one thing that stood out to us is the animated dimension. It’s the first time an MCU movie has acknowledged an animated dimension, making it a fully canon part of the multiverse. We believe, could eventually lead to a Spider-Verse Miles Morales crossover at some point. I mean... we’ve seen crazier things!

Correction: A previous version of this story listed the wrong last name for America Chavez. We’ve corrected the error.

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