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Movies & TV

14th Feb 2022

The new Doctor Strange trailer teases the shocking return of a much-loved character

Rory Cashin

Is that who we think it is??

Gosh, it sure has been a busy couple of days for all things Marvel.

First, it was announced that Netflix’s foray into the Marvel universe with their shows Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Luke Cage and The Defenders will all be leaving the platform on Tuesday, 1 March. This is because the licence of these properties has now officially reverted back to Disney, hence the arrival of a certain somebody in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

It is currently unclear if the shows will be shifted over to Disney+ or simply stop being streamed altogether.

Secondly, there was the Super Bowl, and Marvel had two new arrivals to show off, the first being a new teaser for their upcoming Disney+ show Moon Knight:

On that new show, Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige told Empire the following:

“It’s been fun to work with Disney+ and see the boundaries shifting on what we’re able to do. There are moments [in the series] when Moon Knight is wailing on another character, and it is loud and brutal, and the knee-jerk reaction is, ‘We’re gonna pull back on this, right?’ We’re not pulling back. There’s a tonal shift. This is a different thing.”

And, last but not least, we’ve got Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Likely still reeling from the world-altering events he helped to kickstart during Spider-Man: No Way Home, the new trailer really leans into some creepy imagery and unsettling mood, as would be expected from director Sam Raimi, the man behind The Evil Dead and Drag Me To Hell (and, of course, the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy).

During the trailer, we see the return of Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), Wong (Benedict Wong), Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Wanda (Elisabeth Olsen) all return to the fold, and they’re joined by America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), aka Miss America, another reality-altering superhero.

It would appear the plot revolves around Strange messing with the fabric of reality so much that it has begun to cave in on itself, allowing creatures from all parallel universe to break through.

For anyone who watched Loki, you might spot some similarities between the TVA in that show and the location that an arrested Strange finds himself being brought to.

And it is here, at the 1:18 mark in the trailer below, that the following character arrives:

“We should tell him the truth,” says a man, the trailer never showing us his face.

But… it sounds an awful lot like Patrick Stewart. And even from the reverse shot above, it looks like it could be him, too.

So has Stewart returned as Professor Xavier, officially bringing together the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the X-Men Universe? Or is this another WandaVision misdirect, like when we thought we were getting Pietro Maximoff, but we actually only got Ralph Bohner?

One of the biggest clues is that whoever this man is, he appears to be walking out on the stage to meet Strange, and Xavier has famously been in a wheelchair for decades. Although, having said that, who knows what version of reality this is, so maybe in this universe, Professor X has been looking after the TVA, the way Ravonna Renslayer did in the Loki show.

Also, Marvel released the brand new poster for the movie…

… and if you close in on some of the broken mirror shards, there appear to be clues to the return/arrival of Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell), who took the Super Serum during the first episode of What If…?, a show that is proving to be way more important to the overall MCU timeline that anyone could’ve guessed.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will arrive in Irish cinemas on Friday, 6 May.

Clip via Disney Ireland

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