The Marvel multiverse seems real in just-announced Doctor Strange sequel

So, is the Marvel multiverse real or not? That was a question viewers were left with after Spider-Man: Far From Home, wherein Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio teased the existence of a multiverse, only to later be revealed as a con artist. But he may not have been lying about this one. During Marvel Studios’ big Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, they announced a Doctor Strange sequel: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Now there’s a suggestive title!

“Just because Quentin Beck makes up lies about the multiverse doesn’t mean it isn’t real,” Scott Derrickson, the Doctor Strange director who will be returning for the sequel, said on stage.

The “madness” element may be just as important as the “multiverse” part of that title, because Derrickson additionally teased the upcoming sequel as the “first scary MCU film.”

The original 2016 Doctor Strange film ended with Strange’s mentor and comrade Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) vowing to cut down the world’s supply of sorcerers, after interpreting that movie’s climactic confrontation with Dormammu as an abuse of magic. There was no mention of Mordo at the panel, but there was another bit of news: Apparently Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch is set to play a major role in the film.

“He’ll be facing unexpected things. I think he’ll be in a position rather like the audience of not knowing what’s coming at him,” Cumberbatch said at the panel. “There was a lot of authority, I thought, in the Avengers iterations, so we’re going back to kind of destroy him, I think.”

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is set to hit theaters May 7, 2021. Check out the logo below.

—With reporting from Devan Coggan

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