The premiere of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was recently moved back by Marvel, but it only delayed it slightly. We still don’t have a trailer for the highly anticipated Doctor Strange sequel, and we might not even get one until Spider-Man: No Way Home hits theaters. We are still waiting to see another No Way Home trailer, but that even may not be out for a while. That’s where Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is set to appear next, as we already know from the first No Way Home trailer. And that’s also a multiverse story. But the Doctor Strange 2 rumors have been coming in for a long time. It so happens that a massive leak is making the rounds right now, revealing pretty much everything there is to know about the sequel. That includes the identity of Doctor Strange 2’s main villain. Before we can go any further, I’ll remind you that massive spoilers lie ahead.
The big Doctor Strange 2 leak
A Redditor who posted accurate MCU information time and time again released the purported plot of the movie a little while ago. The leak reveals some of the absolutely crazy events that we’ll supposedly witness in the Doctor Strange 2 film. That leak seems to match an in-depth Multiverse of Madness plot leak that you might discover on specific Discord channels dedicated to Marvel leaks. That leak also originates from Reddit, having been posted as a theory recently.
What that means is that we can’t verify any of this right now. The Reddit and Discord leaks, however, read similarly. They sound believable, too, given what we saw so far in the MCU Phase 4 when it comes to character variants and villains. But you should treat everything that follows as unconfirmed rumors.
If you’ve made it this far, you still have time to turn back and avoid what follows. That’s because huge Doctor Strange 2 spoilers follow below.
The minor villains
As always with Marvel stories, we’ll have all sorts of types of antagonists in the film. Rumors in early 2020 said that Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) will be one of the film’s villains, or at least an anti-hero. Her interests will not align with everyone else, and WandaVision made that abundantly clear. Wanda can be a massive MCU villain. She’s still suffering, trying to cope with the losses she’s experienced in real life, but also in the fictional world she created in WandaVision.
That said, a film titled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will have other bad guys. One of them is Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), of course. We’ve been expecting the character to go against Doctor Strange, given what happened in the first film. According to the Reddit leak, we’ll see another Mordo variant in the movie. He is a Sorcerer Supreme in one universe and part of one Illuminati version. While that might sound like a great twist for the character, this Mordo will still betray Strange at some point, giving him up to the Illuminati at some point in the film.
Earlier than that, Mordo prime dies at the hand of Wanda in the main timeline, which is already a hint that Wanda can be a major villain in the MCU.
The demons in Doctor Strange 2
This wouldn’t be a Doctor Strange movie without horrific monsters in it. Add the “madness” part, and we should be in for a scary movie. After all, early leaks said this would be an MCU horror movie. This time it’s not Dormamu that’s going to be going after Strange. And there’s no Mephisto in the sequel either. And with a director like Sam Raimi, who besides directing the first three Spider-Man films, has also directed horror classics like The Evil Dead 1 and 2 and Army of Darkness, it’s bound to be scarier and more fright-filled.
But both the Reddit and Discord leaks say that Shuma-Gorath is a Doctor Strange 2 villain. And both of them say that the one-eyed monster isn’t the movie’s main antagonist. It’s actually Wanda the person summoning Shuma-Gorath and other villains to hunt America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez). She has the power of creating portals between realities, while Wanda can only astral-project herself into other worlds.
Speaking of Shuma-Gorath, the demon is almost guaranteed to be in the film. This was recently found out because an Australian retailer has opened up preorders for Doctor Strange 2 merchandise. A puzzle with 1,000 pieces has a picture of Shuma-Gorath on it battling against Strange. The giant, one-eyed creature is all but a definite villain in the film.
Mid-range villain possibilities
Separately, there’s another type of mid-range villain that we’re going to experience in the film. According to the Discord leak, Strange will battle himself in the movie. We’ve already seen a preview of this in What If…?, where Supreme Strange killed a regular Strange variant, absorbing his powers. A different rumor did say that we’ll see an evil Strange in Multiverse of Madness.
While we’re at it, we’ll also have a dead Strange version in the movie who dies early in the film while trying to protect Chavez. The Strange in the primary reality will have to astral project himself into the dead body to help Chavez. The Discord leak says the two will be separated into two reality branches at some point during the movie. This dead version of Strange will look like a zombie, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be a villain.
The big villain revealed
You might have noticed that a name kept popping up when talking about villains above — and I’m not referring to Doctor Strange. It’s been Wanda all along. And the Reddit and Discord leaks say that Wanda is indeed the movie’s big villain.
She’s going mad, trying to hop realities in search of her children. After all, WandaVision ends up with Wanda hearing her imaginary kids calling her out. Like in the TV show, Wanda will do anything to accomplish her goals, even if that means going complete villain across universes.
The Reddit leak explains that Wanda kills some of the Illuminati while astral projecting into a version of her who happens to be a housewife with children in that reality. The Discord leak tells us that Wanda will kill Charles Xavier and Balder the Brave. She will also hurt Monica Rambeau’s Captain Marvel and Captain Carter in the same fight — it’s unclear whether they die.
Finally, Wanda will go on killing sprees elsewhere in the movie, including Kamar-Taj, where other sorcerers will die at her hand.
If all this information is genuine, Wanda will become a major MCU Phase 4 villain in Doctor Strange 2. But, again, there’s no way to confirm any of this.
The next upcoming Marvel projects
The next Marvel projects are in the middle of Phase 4 and starting Phase 5 of the MCU. With Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings premiering in September, Marvel fans only have to wait less than two months before a new film. Eternals premieres next Friday and we are preparing for it.
- Eternals (November 5, 2021)
- Hawkeye (TV series) (November 24, 2021)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (December 17, 2021)
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 6, 2022)
- Ms. Marvel (TV series)
- Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8, 2022)
MCU Phase 5
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 11, 2022)
- The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special (coming during the holidays in 2022)
- The Marvels (aka Captain Marvel 2) (February 17, 2023)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5, 2023)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (July 28, 2023)
- Blade (release date TBD)
- She-Hulk (release date TBD)
Plus, there is a season 2 of Loki we are waiting on. We are also looking forward to X-Men, Fantastic Four, Deadpool 3, Armor Wars, Ironheart, I Am Groot, Moon Knight, and Secret Invasion. So there is still so much to come.
