Doctor Strange fans have been very, very patient these past few years. We first got to see our beloved Sorcerer Supreme on the big screen way back in 2016, which is basically 500 years ago thanks to Covid and the Trump years. Then we got to see him in the Infinity Saga, What If…?, and eventually Spider-Man: No Way Home, but we’ve had to wait six long years to see him in his second solo outing. But the wait is finally almost over! Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is coming on May 6, and we fans are going to be treated to not just one, but several versions of Stephen Strange. Here are all the variants teased to appear in Doctor Strange 2 so far!
But wait, what’s a variant? Last summer, Disney Plus’s Loki established that in Marvel’s multiverse, a variant is an alternate version of someone in a different universe. Doctor Strange 2 will see Stephen surfing the multiverse, dropping into different realities and getting himself in trouble with Baron Mordo, the Illuminati, Wanda Maximoff as the Scarlet Witch, and more. But he’ll also team up with new allies, including America Chavez and Rintrah the minotaur. And yes, Stephen will be confronted with plenty of different versions of himself across realities.
Defender Strange
In the comics, the defenders are a superhero team, somewhat looser and more informal than the Avengers, formed by Doctor Strange to ward off demonic and interdimensional threats. Originally the team consisted of Strange, the Hulk, and Prince Namor, but eventually the Silver Surfer, Valkyrie, Hawkeye, Luke Cage, the Red Guardian, and other Marvel characters joined the team to fight individual battles, coming and going depending on whether their skills were needed.
In the Doctor Strange 2 trailers and TV spots, plus an action figure that was leaked a few months ago, we see brief glimpses of Strange dressed in his recognizable Defenders uniform, with his hair long and tied back in a ponytail. It’s possible that “our” Strange could form the Defenders and don the new uniform in the movie, but the long hair is a clue that Defender Strange is a variant, and not the Strange we’ll follow throughout the story.
Sinister Strange
Marvel’s What If…? also set the stage for Multiverse of Madness, introducing a new reality in every episode. Back when the show streamed, it was widely assumed that the stories were just one-offs, but now there’s mounting evidence that the realities portrayed in What If…? will actually affect the live-action MCU.
In season 1, episode 4, “What if Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?,” Strange loses his love interest, Christine Palmer, in a car accident and begins to obsess over bringing her back from the dead. In the episode, reality splits into one timeline in which he decides to move on, and another in which he spends hundreds of years absorbing power from other beings in order to change the course of reality and bring Christine back to life. In doing so, he becomes a twisted, sinister version of himself that the “real” Strange has to fight.
In the trailer, we see Strange walk into a dark room with some sort of vortex outside the window. Another version of himself who looks an awful lot like the Sinister Strange from What If…? smiles at him and says, “Things just got out of hand.”
Is this the same Sinister Strange from What If…? Or is Marvel just taking inspiration from What If…?‘s character design in their portrayal of another evil Strange? Either way, it looks like Evil Strange and Good Strange will get a rematch in Multiverse of Madness.
Supreme Strange
When the first trailer for Multiverse of Madness came out, we all assumed that the evil Strange was Doctor Strange Supreme. Now, though, it looks like Supreme Strange might be a third variant, separate from Strange and Sinister Strange. (Is the word “Strange” starting to lose its meaning for anyone else? Just me? Okay.)
For a brief moment in the trailer, as Wanda is pointing out the double standard between how people view her mistakes and Strange’s, we see Strange looking at a giant statue of himself. The statue is clean-shaven and wearing a Cloak of Levitation that looks similar to the version from the comics, with a high pointed collar that reaches over Strange’s head. It wasn’t clear at the time that the statue was of a variant, but now a leaked Funko pop indicates that it may be Strange from another reality. Swipe to the last image in the Instagram post below to take a look:
As you can see, this Strange wears yet another uniform, different from “our” Strange’s blue Kamar-Taj tunic and Defender Strange’s red and white ensemble. This one is blue and white, including the cloak, and Strange’s trademark goatee is gone. If clothes make the variant, then we can assume that this Strange comes from another reality.
Zombie Strange
This one is the weirdest variant yet…and it’s still not 100% clear that it’s a variant at all.
In What If…? season 1 episode 5, “What If…Zombies!?” everyone turns into a—you guessed it—zombie. Stephen is one of the first characters to be afflicted, with his cloak going to Peter Parker for the rest of the episode.
In the trailer, we see Stephen looking at his disintegrating hand in horror as he turns into a zombie, and then we get a shot of a fully zombified Strange casting a spell that gives him multiple arms, similar to the Images of Ikkon spell that he casts in Infinity War to confuse Thanos with multiple copies of himself.
Is this another variant, or will “our” Strange be turned into a zombie at some point in Multiverse of Madness? It’s hard to say at this point. We may just be primed to see Zombie Strange as a variant because of all the other variants appearing.
Are all the different Stranges in the trailer variants, or might some of them be the same character(s) in different circumstances? Are there other variants that we haven’t seen yet, or that are so cleverly hidden in the trailer that we’ve missed them? And how are they going to fit all these Stranges into one movie!?
We’ll find out on May 6, 2022, when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness comes out!
(images: Marvel Studios)
