Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness delivers a shocking final twist before the credits roll and writer Michael Waldron has addressed what this means for Benedict Cumberbatch’s sorcerer.
The Doctor Strange sequel takes its title character to some dark places. After discovering his former ally, Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff, is now hell-bent on killing the young America Chavez in order to steal her universe-hopping powers, Strange sets out on a multiversal mission that ends in him using dark magic to possess the corpse of his alternate self. Although Strange tells Wong he’s okay after the macabre experience, made possible by the forbidden powers of the Darkhold, the film ends as Strange walks out into the streets of New York and suddenly keels over as a third eye opens in his forehead.
The shocking final twist suggests Strange is now facing the consequences of using the Darkhold’s power. The alternate version of him who had also used the book, dubbed Sinister Strange, was seen with the same third eye earlier in the film. While the exact meaning of the third eye in the MCU is not yet clear – in the comics it simply appeared when Strange used the Eye of Agamotto – it certainly suggests Strange has been exposed to darker powers. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, writer Michael Waldron explained the thinking behind the film’s last-second surprise:
“I felt like we had a happy ending. We were like, like, ‘Gee, you know, for a movie where a lot of bad s**t happens, we got kind of a happy ending here.’ We really wrapped it up and that didn’t quite seem right. We kept thinking about what Mordo warned Strange in the first movie: ‘The bill comes due.’ It’s like Wong says, ‘You possessed your own corpse.’ Like, is this guy ever going to face any consequences? And it just felt like a great nod to horror movies where there’s that final twist.”
Given that Doctor Strange has dabbled in various forms of forbidden magic across all his MCU appearances so far, it seems like the sorcerer facing the fallout of his actions is overdue. Wherever Benedict Cumberbatch’s next Doctor Strange film takes the character, it is sure to be a darker tale than the two he has endured so far.
Here is the synopsis for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness:
The MCU unlocks the Multiverse and pushes its boundaries further than ever before. Journey into the unknown with Doctor Strange, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.
Directed by Sam Raimi from a script written by Michael Waldron, the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, with Michael Stuhlbarg, Rachel McAdams, and Patrick Stewart.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in theaters now. Stay tuned for all the latest news surrounding the film and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.
Source: Rolling Stone
