The final battle in Avengers: Endgame is unforgettable. But in case your memory was wiped by the Men in Black or something—Steve Rogers, Thor, and Tony Stark are trying their hardest to beat Thanos but failing. Suddenly, Steve gets a call from Sam Wilson, who’s been blipped for five years, and dozens of portals open up—revealing all the heroes we thought we’d lost forever in Infinity War. As everyone gathers for battle, Steve finally calls out the iconic line that Marvel fans have been waiting to hear ever since the MCU was created, “Avengers, Assemble!” And one of these heroes is, of course, Doctor Strange. So, does that mean Doctor Strange is officially an Avenger?
With only weeks to go until the release of Strange’s second solo outing, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a new interview with Benedict Cumberbatch is throwing that into question.
Multiverse of Madness will follow Strange across multiple realities as he works to undo the damage he did in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Facing a slew of opponents, including an embittered Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and Marvel’s Illuminati, Strange will team up with America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) and confront at least one variant of himself as he tries to repair the multiverse. But as to whether Strange is an Avenger, that’s surprisingly complicated. And to begin with, we’re going to have to talk about whether the Avengers exist at all.
The State of the Avengers
Multiverse of Madness will not only continue the story of Doctor Strange’s journey to become Sorcerer Supreme, it’ll also serve the larger narrative of Marvel’s Phase 4, which is focusing on the multiple realities created in Loki and the rise of a new generation of heroes (who will eventually face Jonathan Majors’s Kang the Conquerer). One of the big questions in Phase 4, though, is whether the Avengers still exist at all. After all, at the end of Endgame, three out of the six original Avengers were dead, and their compound is destroyed. And so far in Phase 4, no one seems to have made any move to reassemble the team. Clint Barton, disabled after years of combat and longing for more time with his family, seems to be retired. He passed on the moniker Hawkeye to Kate Bishop at the end of Hawkeye on Disney Plus. Bruce Banner, in the first teaser trailer for She-Hulk, seems to be similarly passing on the torch to Jennifer Walters. And Thor? Well, even though it looks like he might swing by Earth in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, he doesn’t seem to have any plans to rejoin Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
It’s not that the Avengers have disappeared entirely. In Eternals, when Sprite asks who will lead the Avengers now that Tony and Steve are gone, Ikaris seems like he’s only half-joking when he volunteers himself. That seems to indicate that even if the Avengers are inactive, the residents of Earth expect the hiatus to be temporary. Behind the scenes though, things get more complicated. When Kevin Feige was interviewed for Eternals: Assembled, he referred to Endgame as “the final Avengers movie.” Does he mean the Avengers are gone for good?
All in all, the question of whether Stephen Strange is an Avenger is pretty complicated, considering that it’s unclear whether the Avengers even exist anymore.
The Avengers Roster in the Comics
But what about the original comics? Surely Doctor Strange has joined the Avengers at some point. After all, their roster is so sprawling that everyone seems to be a member, right?
Not quite. The comics contain several team-ups besides the Avengers. Doctor Strange is actually a founding member of the Defenders, a more loosely-knit group of superheroes that battles magical and otherworldly threats. He’s also a member of the Illuminati, a shadowy secret society that controls the Marvel universe behind the scenes. We know that Multiverse of Madness will be debuting both of these teams, thanks to the trailers, merch, and behind-the-scenes looks that we’ve seen so far. Both trailers show Stephen in his classic red and black Defenders uniform with his hair long and in a ponytail. The full trailer also shows a brief glimpse of a secret society, and a recent feature in the April 2022 issue of Empire Magazine confirmed that it’s the Illuminati. It looks like Multiverse of Madness will be focusing heavily on Strange’s Defenders and Illuminati connections, instead of adding him to a new Avengers roster.
But wait! Cap’s rallying cry at the end of Endgame! Didn’t that moment indicate that everyone present, from the core team to the lowliest Kamar-Taj apprentice, has just been dubbed an Avenger?
Maybe, maybe not. It was the heat of battle! He had to say something! Plus, as the new interview with Benedict Cumberbatch indicates, there’s a big difference between a team leader’s battle cry and how Strange sees himself.
Benedict Cumberbatch on Stephen Strange
Cumberbatch recently spoke to KCRW about The Power of the Dog, his new Oscar-nominated western. When asked about Stephen Strange’s character, he had this to say:
People say that you were in the Avengers, but you’re not an Avenger, right? No, I’m not. I’m not at Stark Tower with Nick Fury. No, he’s sort of outside of that realm, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a character trait. I think that is just a job title. He’s there to protect the reality of the Avengers in a different way to what they have been fighting up until the point that everything collides in the last two Avengers movies, so he holds his position as an adult on the periphery of that, but I think only for so long. There’s always a moment where he has to work with people and team up. And you know, we might see that in the next film; you have to wait and see.
This response perfectly encapsulates Stephen’s ambiguous position among the Avengers and the various other superheroes inhabiting the Marvel universe. The Avengers are a SHIELD initiative dreamed up by Nick Fury, and Stephen isn’t part of that world. He’ll gladly work with the Avengers when necessary, as we saw in Infinity War and Endgame, but his main focus is the mystical threats that the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj are committed to fighting. Also, Cumberbatch’s last comment about teaming up with someone in the next film points all the more to a significant Defenders and Illuminati presence.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will premiere on May 8th. We can’t wait to see what team-ups and surprises await!
(image: Marvel)
