The official trailer and poster for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness confirms many fan theories about the appearance of Professor X, the Illuminati, and more. I’ll break down everything you may have missed in the trailer and poster.
This trailer is dripping with callbacks to the Marvel What If…? series on Disney+ including the building dissolving and liquefying up into the sky. We then cut to America Chavez opening up a Star Portal while she is being attacked. Ms. America has the rare ability to smash open star-shaped portals that enable her to traverse the Multiverse.
In the trailer, we see Sir Patrick Stewart joined by an elite group of Marvel characters of the Illuminati. The Illuminati includes members like Iron Man, Professor X, Reed Richards Mister Fantastic, Captain Britain, and Namor, to name a few characters that have already appeared or been hinted at in the MCU. The robots walking Steven Strange into the gathering hall look like builds from Tony Stark or Ultron builds.
It then cuts to a partial shot of Charles Xavier and he says, “We should tell him the truth.” The poster showcases the Illuminati symbol to confirm the group’s appearance in case there was any doubt about the group in the trailer.
We also get a great cameo of a Captain Marvel variant, possibly Monica Rambeau, fighting Wanda Maximoff. Captain Marvel attacks by crashing through the roof of the same location as the Illuminati.
Some have said that this also looks like Black Bolt. Here is why I’m leaning more toward it being both. The suit has similar lines to that of the Captain Marvel or Photon/Spectrum suits. Also, the wall of debris is different from one shot to the next. When the camera angles shift, you can see Wanda’s red chaos magic that wasn’t in the shot above. The trailer also pieces together two different fighting locations to throw us off between the Illuminati headquarters and Kamar-Taj.
The poster also confirms Captain Marvel with a shot of her outfit in the broken glass. Lower in the shot you’ll see a possible appearance of Nightmare, the archnemesis of Doctor Strange. You only see a portion of his eye. Next to that is a look at the creature he battles.
Zombies even make an appearance. There are so many Doctor Strange variants we see it was hard to count them all!
Another easter egg in the poster shows Captain Carter’s shield from What If…? There are also two more pieces of Captain Carter’s suit that appear in the broken shards in the poster.
The creature from the show, named Gargantos leaked from merchandising art, also makes an appearance. The creature also has a protection spell cast on him similar to the one that Doctor Strange casts during the finale of What If…? to protect them from harm while they battle Ultron.
There are also scenes that indicate that the MCU is heading to the Savage Land and the Dark Dimension.
Right after the Savage Land of dinosaurs, a Star Portal opens up and you can see an animated universe that could be the entrance of the What If…? crossover.
Scarlett Witch is seen comforting herself in her Westview home that includes some of the twin’s belongings like scooters and a baseball glove.
The Super Bowl Tv Spot was slightly different and included a shot of Christine at the Illuminati compound with America Chavez in a glass cell. When they zoom in on Wanda’s eyes you can see these two cells reflected in her pupils. She may be invading the compound to find her sons, which opens the door to the House of M storyline that would hopefully bring the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All of these scenes with Wanda attacking people could just be flashbacks from whatever Professor X needs to tell Steve Strange.
There are also multiple variants of Christine that appear in the trailer and the movie spot.
Twitter user @belovafilm also pointed out that the scenes with Doctor Strange and Scarlett Witch line up perfectly, indicating that Wanda is messing with time and perception. She says to Steven, “You break the rules…and become the hero. I do it and I become the enemy. That doesn’t seem fair.” It looks like Wanda is still on the edge and has the potential to create the madness for sure.
The last little easter egg is the Darkhold that was last seen with Wanda after WandaVision. It appears in the dead center of the poster, as well as a few shards on the side of the poster. There is also a quick scene with Doctor Strange manipulating what appears to be multiple dimensions before slamming that back into the Darkhold.
Can we talk about how exciting it is to get music from Danny Elfman along with Sam Raimi directing? It looks like fans will have a lot to process on May 6th when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters.