What’s in the first post-credits scene of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and what does it mean? Warning, spoilers.
WARNING, SPOILERS. The article below contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. If you have not yet seen the film, we invite you not to read the following paragraphs.
Like almost all Marvel movies, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness contains post-credits scenes. This twenty-eighth MCU film, which plunges the character of Benedict Cumberbatch into the madness of the Multiverse, contains two. But it is above all the first that offers a tantalizing glimpse of the future of Stephen Strange.
WHAT IS GOING ON ?
Stephen Strange walks quietly through the streets of New York before being stopped short by an unknown blonde woman, dressed in a purple costume, who seems to possess powers and master the mystical arts. She challenges Doctor Strange by telling him that they have an incursion to repair and invites him to join him.
Ready to take on this mission alongside her, Doctor Strange moves into position to follow her through the portal she has opened to another universe, as her third eye appears on her forehead. Together, they cross the portal to reach this other dimension, which recalls one already visited by Stephen Strange in the first Doctor Strange film.
WHAT TO UNDERSTAND?
First of all, this post-generic scene of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness marks the incursion of a new actress into the MCU and not just anyone since it is Charlize Theron. Many rumors suggested that the star had signed with Marvel and this scene confirms it.
And the actress seems to have landed a role of choice since it is Clea, a very powerful magician from Faltine, a magical dimension, in which she is the equivalent of the Supreme Sorcerer. The illegitimate daughter of Umar and Prince Oniri, Clea first appeared in Marvel comics in Strange Tales #126 in 1964. She is trained by Doctor Strange and can teleport, travel through dimensions, and create very powerful illusions, among other things.
Clea is mostly the niece of Dormammu, the interdimensional entity that threatened Strange and Earth in the first Doctor Strange movie. This enemy resides in the Dark Dimension, a space beyond time where eternal life is possible. This is why Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) and his zealots had contacted and pledged allegiance to Dormammu. The goal of the latter is to invade all the universes and drag the worlds into his Dark Dimension, and in particular the Earth which he covets above all.
And when we pay closer attention to the universe in which Clea wants to take Strange for the indicated mission, we can see Dormammu and his Dark Dimension. It remains to be seen if this return to the Dark Dimension for Strange will be a good sign or if he will confront Dormammu once again.
As a reminder, in the first part of Doctor Strange, Stephen had managed to convince Dormammu not to invade the Earth by using the Eye of Agamotto to trap him in a time loop. Dormammu kills Strange several times before pleading with him to release him from the loop and agreeing to leave Earth alone.
Is this agreement null and void? Or will Strange still have to face Dormammu? Either way, Strange seems to be already very close to Clea in the post-credits scene, which means that some amount of time has passed between the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse. of Madness and that post-credits scene.
In the comics, Strange and Clea had a romantic relationship and were even married. But the threat from Dormammu and Clea’s parents got the better of their story. For the moment, all that is known is that Strange and Clea must repair an incursion, a phenomenon explained in the film which refers to a clash between two realities and which has serious consequences.
This explains why Strange now has a third eye on his forehead. He must have kept this specificity of the Strange 838 he faced before returning to his Earth-616. We also understand that it affects him in the final scene of the film when he has a hearing attack in the middle of the street and that famous third eye appears.
In any case, we haven’t finished hearing about Doctor Strange, since the message « Doctor Strange will return » is displayed at the end of the film and this post-credits scene promises new crazy adventures in the Multiverse for the hero incarnate. by Benedict Cumberbatch.