A lot happens in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which probably will be the furthest thing from surprising for anyone who has been paying attention to the movie’s marketing campaign. The trailers promised a universe-hopping explosion of different possibilities and realities and, yeah, that’s pretty much exactly what happens. But along the way we’re also treated to some new character introductions–like America Chavez, who has the ability to cross dimensions at will–and some new versions of more familiar faces, like an evil, terrifying version of Strange himself. But what actually happens in the movie and how do things end for our heroes?
We’re going to break it down right here, right now. Massive spoilers to follow, so please proceed with caution.
The Multiverse, Explored
After being sent to a final alternate reality (this one isn’t numbered or named–everyone, or almost everyone in it, is dead) by America, Strange and alternate Christine are forced to confront an evil, alternate Strange for use of the Darkhold and a way to make contact with Strange’s home universe to save America from Wanda. Things, unsurprisingly, do not go well but eventually Strange is able to use the book to “dreamwalk” and project his consciousness into the body of the dead Doctor Strange that America initially brought with her by accident when she first arrived. That’s right–it’s a Marvel Zombie but also not a Marvel Zombie at all. This Strange is only undead in the sense that his body is literally rotting, otherwise there’s no relation or connection to the What If…? Episode.
Corpse Doctor Strange manages to travel to Mt. Wundagore to interrupt Wanda’s attempted murder of America, which America herself eventually stops by showing Wanda an alternate version of herself where her children view this version of Wanda as a threat and an invader trying to kill their real mom. This manages to snap Wanda back to reality where she decides to destroy Mt. Wundagore with herself inside it, ensuring that none of the Darkhold’s magic or spells will ever be transcribed again.
With Wanda, tragically, gone, Wong and America are able to make a dimension-hop to go save the living Strange and Christine, drop Christine back off in her home dimension, and head back to their home world’s Kamar-Taj to start picking up the pieces.
Some major takeaways from this are that America is able to consciously pick which universes she travels to and can bring multiple people with her on the trip, meaning she’s likely going to be a major lynch pin character for the exploration of the multiverse in the future. She’s currently the only person known with this innate ability and the only known person without alternate selves across the multiverse. There’s only one America, and it’s very likely this will continue to be significant. And we leave this lone America as a new pupil learning how to wield magic at Kamar-Taj.
Unfortunately, however, things don’t actually end smoothly for Strange himself. Despite only using the Darkhold for a matter of moments, it was, apparently, still enough to corrupt him a little bit. Before the movie actually ends, we check back in with Strange in New York and see him, in civilian wear, going about his day when suddenly he’s struck with an incredible pain that brings him to his knees. This, oddly enough, turns out to be the development of a third eye on his forehead–the same third eye that the fully corrupted Doctor Strange had in the other universe.
There is no actual explanation given in the movie as to what the third eye is or what it does but it clearly relates to the Darkhold–which deviates a bit from the comics where Strange having a third eye usually connects to various types of magic he’s able to use. Things get even more confusing moments later with…
The Post-Credit Scene
Of course the movie doesn’t just end there. This is the MCU after all, so there’s two post-credits scenes.
The first rejoins Strange at an unspecified time in the future where he apparently has gone back to living a normal life–all that pain and fear in the moment of his third eye opening is behind him. But, he’s interrupted yet again on the street, this time by a surprise appearance. Charlize Theron, in a strange purple outfit, appears out of nowhere on the street to stop Strange in his tracks. She says she’s from another universe, and that Strange has caused an “incursion” (the collision between two universes, caused by too much meddling in the multiverse) and that he needs to come help her.
She’s not named in the scene but it would seem Theron is playing the MCU version of Clea, a character from the comics who is also a magic user and sorcerer supreme of the “Dark Dimension.” We can assume that this will hold in live-action at least to some degree thanks to Clea being able to not only travel across dimensions but also the way her magic seems to be distinctly black and purple, the opposite of the bright gold and yellow of magic in this universe.
Strange doesn’t bother to argue with her, and instead responds by readying himself for another adventure, opening his third eye and transforming back into his costume.
There isn’t a ton of concrete information here to speculate with, but the fact that incursions are happening is never a good sign–though it’s impossible to be certain if the incursion Clea is dealing with is actually Strange’s fault or has, somehow, something to do with the events of Loki’s TV show and the subsequent fracture of the timeline caused by Kang. We have yet to reference these events in any other MCU property, so it’s entirely possible that there are just two different cosmic-level crises happening simultaneously, but it’s also entirely possible that the two of them are related.
As for the final post-credits scene, it’s actually just a gag. Sam Raimi’s long-time collaborator Bruce Campbell has a cameo in the film, of course, as a street vendor charmed to endlessly punch himself in the face. He gets the spotlight in this last scene where he finally breaks his curse and then gleefully looks right into the camera to say “it’s over!”
So, yeah, not a lot to work with in terms of theories there–but hey, maybe we’ll see more Campbell character cameos in the future if Raimi continues to work in the MCU.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in theaters now.
