If one needed more evidence that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is going to manifest as a Mobius strip of a movie, then its latest teaser puts a definitive stamp on such a notion. While the previous clips have been respective showcases of chaotic ambiguity experienced by Benedict Cumberbatch’s magic-conjuring title character, the latest footage implies that the help of Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff will make things even worse!
As The Everly Brothers’ 1958 classic, “All I Have to Do is Dream,” plays in the opening, dreams become the dominant theme in the latest Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness teaser trailer, which immediately seems to put primary characters Stephen Strange and Wanda Maximoff on parallel paths defined by a fixation on what has been lost in their respective lives. You can check out the clip just below.
While we see the REM-wrought phenomenon manifest for Strange as he puts on a brave face to watch the love of his life Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) get married to someone else—a sacrifice possibly attributed to his current life of mystic asceticism—an equivalent scenario is occurring for Wanda specifically defined by events of the 2021 Disney+ event TV series WandaVision, in which her magic anomaly created twin sons with Vision, Billy and Tommy, somehow survived the collapse of their native reality, but remain lost in the Multiverse. Indeed, the respective dreams in question are rooted in obsessions that can metastasize to evil. Consequently, as we see both Strange and Maximoff compelled to utilize their powers in reality-bending ways, we are still left in the dark when it comes to identifying the film’s main antagonistic force, which many believe is Wanda herself. Yet, the presence of Strange’s own apparently evil, third-eye-exhibiting dimensional doppelganger muddies that notion as well.
Regardless, Multiverse of Madness, per the teaser, seems to signal that WandaVision is prerequisite viewing. This is not only due to the context of Wanda’s redemption-seeking presence—after she essentially enslaved a small town full of innocent people, physically and psychologically—but her ongoing obsession to find young Billy and Tommy, who both appear in one of Wanda’s dreams in the new clip, seemingly played, as we last saw them on the TV series, by Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne, respectively. Thus, with Wanda’s arc apparently destined to be as important as Stephen’s, the impact of the story on would-be audiences is likely to be lost without having watched WandaVision. Additionally, and perhaps obviously, the interdimensional Pandora’s Box that Strange himself so carelessly opened to help Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home will also serve as key context for the film.
While this apparent dynamic demonstrates the unprecedented canonical depths the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to chart, it could also serve as a point in which the continuity starts to alienate casual moviegoers, many of whom typically patronize the films simply because they enjoy the visual spectacles and, more importantly, connect with the characters. The latter might be difficult to achieve in this case, seeing as the film essentially requires the homework of catching a 9-episode event series to fully understand the motivations of an apparently crucial character in Wanda. Moreover, the film will juggle these overwhelming arcs while serving as the introduction to a dimension-crossing sidekick and potential future MCU staple in America Chavez, a.k.a. Miss America (Xochitl Gomez), and is expected to introduce Marvel Comics’ secret society of elite heroes, The Illuminati. This notion is bolstered by a previous trailer’s inclusion of a voice believed to be Patrick Stewart‘s Professor Charles Xavier, an X-Men character who, at least in the comics, is a key Illuminati member.
Sam Raimi, director of Sony’s Spider-Man Trilogy and the Evil Dead movies, returned to the comic book movie genre to helm Multiverse of Madness, and worked off a script by Michael Waldron, who, by no coincidence, worked on last year’s Multiverse-mired Marvel series, Loki, as a writer/executive producer. Yet, amidst the chaos and confusion showcased in the film’s various teasers, the director’s dark levity is clearly present, as evidenced by the presence of an alternate, zombified version of Doctor Strange, who seems to have his own role to play in these ambiguous events.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness makes its way to theaters on Friday, May 6.
