If, like us, you've been suffering withdrawal symptoms from Doctor Stephen Strange's trippy influence in Spider-Man: No Way Home, you're in for a treat. Marvel has just dropped the latest teaser trailer for the character's second standalone title, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It's dark, expansive and has a general vibe of “saving the world while as high as a kite”.
There's one moment about halfway through the trailer, however, that has grabbed everyone's attention. At 1:12, Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) enters what appears to be the British Museum if it was sponsored by Apple, chaperoned by lightweight Cybermen, and is greeted by a group of seated, faceless characters that are backlit to the hilt. Then, we hear one of the group speak the line: “We should tell him the truth.”
The unmistakable timbre of Sir Patrick Stewart has entered the chat.
Unless Marvel's executive board has decided that this is the perfect time to introduce Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise to the MCU, Sir Patrick's trailer cameo is a tantalising hint that many fans have been longing to see: it looks like mutants are coming to the MCU.
Mutated Marvel
Of course, we've already seen a couple of X-Men make their bows in the larger universe. Wanda (played by Elizabeth Olsen, also seen in the trailer) and Pietro Maximoff – Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver – first appeared in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. Scarlett Witch's tenure has fared slightly better than her brother's brief stint, starring in the following Avengers films and helming smash hit WandaVision.
It was here that we first suspected the students of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters might graduate to the MCU, as we saw Evan Peters' Quicksilver – from 21st Century Fox's X-Men franchise – in the series. After Disney fully acquired Fox in 2019, it was only a matter of time before Professor Xavier and his gang were weaved into the MCU family, and it looks like that time has officially come. Even Deadpool and Deadpool 2 are available on Disney+, which suggests Ryan Reynolds' X-rated merc with a mouth might be accepted into the fold.
One theory that has cropped up is that this signals the introduction of Marvel's Illuminati, a secretive group of superheroes founded by Tony Stark that works behind the scenes to defend the planet. As reported by The Illuminerdi back in 2020, Marvel Studios has been working on a project based on the supergroup, which includes – you've guessed it – Professor X.
UPDATE:
Stephen Strange: the Illuminati will see you now.
Wait, isn't he dead?
You've been paying attention. Professor X did indeed die in 2017's Logan, but silly stumbling blocks like mortality and storyline continuity are a thing of the past for the MCU. In perhaps the greatest piece of cinematic inspiration since Luke Skywalker's family issues, Marvel now has carte blanche on introducing and reintroducing as many characters as they damn well please by merely smiling faintly and whispering “multiverse”. Anything is now possible for the MCU, which opens up so many character opportunities that we quiver slightly whenever we think about it for too long.
Does the introduction of Professor X mean Hugh Jackman's Wolverine will bare his claws again? Will Sir Ian McKellen join the MCU after it looks like Amazon's The Lord of the Rings series won't include Gandalf? The mind boggles.
Any other Easter eggs?
The aforementioned ‘Apple British Museum’ brings up the possibility of a cameo from the MCU's next big character. If that is indeed the British Museum in the story and not just a handy filming location, it could mean that we're about to see Oscar Isaac's Moon Knight enter Doctor Strange's kaleidoscopic universe.
It would make sense: Marc Spector, a mercenary who has dissociative identity disorder, works as a museum curator in London called Steven Grant. His alter ego, Moon Knight, is given his powers by the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Whenever anything mystical happens in the MCU, you'll usually see Doctor Strange sniffing around, so we'd put our money on a Steven/Stephen meeting during Doctor Strange's runtime.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is out in UK cinemas on Friday 6th May.
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