We’re four days away from the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness premiere, which means the red carpet premiere happens on Monday. We’ll get the first reactions to Marvel’s big blockbuster soon, just as Marvel continues its final marketing march. Part of that push is the press tour, where the cast and crew talk about their experiences without addressing any of the big spoilers and cameo speculation. One of those people is director Sam Raimi, who revealed how Doctor Strange will react to the film’s purported cameos.
Before going further, you should know that some spoilers might follow below. I’m not about to reveal the plot for you, although I’m reasonably confident that a big plot leak from late last summer tells us precisely what happens in Multiverse of Madness. But I’ll at least mention the cameos that Marvel has already confirmed for Doctor Strange 2 in what follows.
Marvel announced the full title for Doctor Strange 2 back in July 2019. That was right after the Endgame and Far From Home movies concluded the Infinity Saga. And that’s when the cameo speculations started, considering the title. Multiverse of Madness is a title that indicates that Marvel can do anything it pleases in the movie without worrying about the consequences too much.
Exciting Doctor Strange 2 multiverse cameo rumors
Spider-Man: No Way Home is also a multiverse film, but we didn’t know that beforehand. What I’m trying to get at is that we’ve had Doctor Strange 2 cameo rumors since the early days of pre-production, which preceded the pandemic.
Later, those cameo rumors saw many updates and refinements. As Marvel shot the first “draft” of the film, we got the first round of leaks. Then Sam Raimi & Co. went in for massive reshoots last fall. The purpose of the extra filming was to fix the story and add new surprise characters. That’s when another wave of cameo rumors surfaced.
Marvel started confirming some of the rumors back in mid-February, with the help of the Super Bowl trailer and the new poster. We discovered with ease that Professor X (Patrick Stewart) was in the movie. The trailer also suggested that Captain Marvel or an Iron Man variant appear in the film. The poster showed the Captain Carter shield.
Confirmed Multiverse of Madness cameos
Fast-forward to late April, and we know it’s Captain Marvel, not Iron Man. We’re probably looking at the Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) version. Also, Marvel just showed the first live-action version of Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell) in a Doctor Strange 2 promo clip.
It’s Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the first cameo that Marvel revealed in the first trailer. But, at the time, it wasn’t clear that the Mordo in the clip wasn’t the MCU variant. One of the Christine Palmers (Rachel McAdams) variants we see in the clips is also from the same universe.
Add to that the Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) variants we’ll see in the film, and you’ll get an idea of the confirmed Multiverse of Madness cameos. That also means Marvel has additional surprises that it’s unwilling to disclose while promoting Doctor Strange 2.
The crowds that will be overcrowding theaters this weekend will certainly enjoy all these exciting Easter eggs. We saw with No Way Home how amazing those reveals were.
Again, that’s a multiverse movie that allowed Marvel and Sony to merge all the Spider-Man films made in the past 20 years under the same multiverse umbrella. We got five non-MCU villains and two Spider-Man variants to join Tom-Holland’s universe. And crowds went wild.
How Doctor Strange will react to the cameos
However, the characters involved in these movies will show a different sort of composure when meeting these beloved superhero/villain variants. Sam Raimi explained what meeting cameos will mean for Multiverse of Madness characters like Doctor Strange in a wide-ranging interview with Rolling Stone.
The way Rolling Stone asked the cameo question is just as exciting as the answer:
Let’s say there’s a character from another universe — maybe from the Marvel movies that Fox did — who suddenly shows up in the movie. That’s very exciting for the audience, but it feels like that excitement of recognition could push you out of the story. How do you balance that?
That’s where Raimi explained what the cameos will feel like for characters like Doctor Strange, hinting that he’ll be oblivious to what is happening. That’s because some of the iconic characters the audience sees mean nothing to him:
I think if that situation appears, sometimes the best answer is to just let the character who’s experiencing this new character react truthfully. Now, if there was a famous character from another universe that appeared in Multiverse of Madness, I’m not sure that our Doctor Strange would even know who he was; he might blow him off and not make it any big deal at all.
I think a truthful response can sometimes be the funniest or the most engaging for an audience. You put them in a position like, ‘Man, you don’t know who that guy is? Oh, my God!’ It’s like if some schmo was meeting James Bond onscreen for the first time, and said, ‘Buddy, you’ll have the martini the way I serve it. Get me?’ ‘Don’t you know that’s James Bond?!’ That’s a different kind of fun for the audience to have.
Some of Doctor Strange’s reactions are already here
Raimi didn’t namedrop any of the Multiverse of Madness cameos that Doctor Strange would interact with. However, we do have a few of his reactions already.
Remember those trailers and promos that Marvel used to confirm Multiverse of Madness cameos? They’ve started offering us some of Doctor Strange’s reactions. Like the look, he gives Professor X when he starts talking in the Super Bowl trailer.
The news clip has Strange being confronted by Captain Carter for the first time. And there’s some shield throwing that goes on in it. You can watch the video below, while Raimi’s full interview is available at this link.
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