Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 6, 2022)

EXCLUSIVE: After months speculating whether Rachel McAdams would return to reprise her role in the next Doctor Strange film, sources Deadline McAdams has closed a deal to join Benedict Cumberbatch in Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Cumberbatch returns to reprise the title role with Sam Raimi taking over directing duties.

Marvel had no comment.

Benedict Wong and Chiwetel Ejiofor also are expected to reprise their roles from the original film as, respectively, fellow sorcerer Wong and Strange’s compatriot-turned-nemesis Karl Mordo. And Elizabeth Olsen has been tapped to reprise her role as Scarlet Witch, aka Wanda Maximoff. Deadline recently broke that Xochitl Gomez is also joining the cast.

Plot details are unknown at this time as is how big of role McAdams will have. Production will begin after Cumberbatch finishes filming on the next Spider-Man pic, where Cumberbatch also will be playing Doctor Strange.

Raimi replaces original director Scott Derrickson, who departed the project in January due to creative differences. Derrickson remains as an executive producer. Raimi, meanwhile, will need to get up to speed before the film’s scheduled production start date in May.

McAdams is coming off her heartwarming performance in the Netflix musical comedy Eurovision, which showed off her comedic chops once again and earned her strong reviews across the board.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Nice! Guessing the multiverse will begin in Spider-Man 3 and then continue in this sequel. This is definitely Strange's area of expertise.

Wanda Maximoff admits that she made some “mistakes” during the events of Disney+’s WandaVision, in a new teaser trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (in theaters May 6… probably/hopefully).

Originally released as Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s end-of-credits “scene,” the teaser above doesn’t spoil the latest Spider-Man film, other than to establish that the multiverse has been unsettled — at least in part due to Doctor Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) casting a spell against Wong’s (Benedict Wong) better advisement.

As seen above, Strange will seek out Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) — not to hear her penance for entrapping the people of WandaVision‘s sleepy Westview, N.J. in the course of grieving Vision — but to find out what she herself knows about the multiverse.

DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESSThe trailer also features glimpses of Wong himself, Wanda in Scarlet Witch mode, the return of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Baron Mordo, Xochitl Gomez’s America Chavez, the tentacled Gargantos, and a live-action incarnation of a certain What If…? character.

A poster was also released, seen below.

Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange was lined up to appear in a WandaVision bonus scene, but ultimately it was decided to forego the potentially distracting cameo. “It would have taken away from Wanda, which is what we didn’t want to do,” Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige told our sister publication Rolling Stone. “We didn’t want the end of the show to be commoditized to go to the next movie [a la] here’s the white guy, ‘Let me show you how power works.’”

UltimateMarvel wrote:Blade is already in this universe so I'm already looking forward to that. I would think Deadpool would be the obvious choice but not sure if he's already in this universe or not. Would be awesome to see Cruise as well.

Tyger wrote:Saw it last night, was disappointed

Tyger wrote:My biggest issue is No Way Home opened the door the multiverse and this movie literally has Multiverse in the title and…there’s not a hell of a lot of multiverse.

UltimateMarvel wrote:

Tyger wrote:My biggest issue is No Way Home opened the door the multiverse and this movie literally has Multiverse in the title and…there’s not a hell of a lot of multiverse.

That's surprising! What the heck is the movie about? lol

Tyger wrote:All the big cameos are in one universe and speaking of cameos, they did Bruce Campbell dirty

Tyger wrote:You got me on Charlize, she’s in a mid-credits scene.

In one part of the movie they got to this universe and meet the Illuminati. It was added to Wikipedia so I’ll just copy and past:

The Illuminati of Earth-838 also includes Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier / Professor X, portraying a different version of the character that he previously played in 20th Century Fox's X-Men film series; Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter / Captain Carter, after voicing another version in the animated series What If...? (2021); Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau / Captain Marvel, an alternate version of her character from Captain Marvel (2019); Anson Mount as Blackagar Boltagon / Black Bolt, an alternate version of his role from Marvel's ABC television series Inhumans (2017); and John Krasinski as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic, a member of the Fantastic Four.

Tyger wrote:Professor X was in the gold floating chair so that was dope, but the Illuminati got killed embarrassingly easily by Wanda

Tyger wrote:Professor X was in the gold floating chair so that was dope, but the Illuminati got killed embarrassingly easily by Wanda

Rusty wrote:

Tyger wrote:Professor X was in the gold floating chair so that was dope, but the Illuminati got killed embarrassingly easily by Wanda

Like the chair in the animated X-Men series? I read they also used the music at some point.

Tyger wrote:

Rusty wrote:

Tyger wrote:Professor X was in the gold floating chair so that was dope, but the Illuminati got killed embarrassingly easily by Wanda

Like the chair in the animated X-Men series? I read they also used the music at some point.

Yup, exactly and I saw the X-Men theme in the credits but didn’t notice it myself. There was a lot of reaction to his appearance though cause people in Utah are easily and audibly amazed.

Also, we barely saw any stretching from Reed Richards, that was the biggest waste in my eyes