Doctor Strange

'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' plays as a direct sequel to the magic and trauma of 'WandaVision,' starring Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet ...

“I loved the way the new costume feels and looks. In Marvel’s “WandaVision,” nothing is as it seems. As “Multiverse” composer Danny Elfman put it at the premiere, Wanda’s story “is heartbreaking all the time.” “Someone who’s taking ownership of that power and has more confidence than we’ve ever seen before.” “You want to make sure that people laugh, and you want to make sure that people have a really good time. “She was such a great character to score and to follow. I loved the hair and makeup. ... I never got tired of watching her.” The Disney+ series, which concludes Friday, mixed sitcom aesthetics, superhero stories and profound emotion. Inside the hex, Wanda was able to temporarily escape her debilitating grief by conjuring an idyllic life with Vision and their twin sons, Billy and Tommy, that resembled her favorite family sitcoms. If that all sounds a little dark and profound for a Disney-owned superhero franchise, it was. “Wanda has always been a huge character, and people love Lizzie as Wanda, but ‘WandaVision’ expanded her.

Why do Wanda Maximoff and our title hero seem to be zombies, and what is the Darkhold? Here's a rundown and a viewing guide to help.

At the end of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the spell appears to have worked, but it remains to be seen if or how the consequences of Dr. Strange’s actions will play into “Multiverse of Madness.” This was necessary because of a botched spell Dr. Strange had cast that was designed to make everyone forget Peter was Spider-Man, which only ended up pulling Spider-Men and villains from alternate M.C.U. universes into the same one. After she vanishes in his arms, the evil Dr. Strange rips apart reality and is left alone to nurse his broken heart. In Dr. Strange’s “Avengers” debut, he is kidnapped by Ebony Maw, who is after the Time Stone. Tony Stark and Peter Parker eventually rescue him, and it becomes evident how much more powerful he has become since “Doctor Strange,” as he holds his own against Thanos, the Eternal-Deviant warlord, despite possessing only a single Infinity Stone compared with Thanos’s four. The trailers for “Multiverse of Madness” have made it out to be a crossover event that’s maybe not “Avengers: Endgame”-level, but certainly close. Episodes 8 and 9 also show Ultron discovering multiple realities and seeking to conquer them. But those who didn’t watch “WandaVision” may be left going “Westview what?” after the new movie. The director of “Multiverse of Madness,” Sam Raimi, has said that the new film is a direct continuation of the last Marvel Studios blockbuster, “ Spider-Man: No Way Home,” released in December. When we last saw Dr. Strange, he’d just caused everyone to forget the existence of Peter Parker to stop the multiverse from exploding. In “Multiverse of Madness,” a distraught Wanda is still struggling to process the original Vision’s death in “Avengers: Infinity War,” as well as her attempt to escape it in the fantasy she created in “WandaVision.” In one of the trailers, she is greeted by her sons in their Westview home, though Wanda’s voice-over identifies the apparently joyful reunion only as a recurring dream. This nine-episode animated anthology series, which tells the stories of alternate versions of M.C.U. heroes in multiple realities, debuted with little fanfare in August, but Episode 4 provides some important context for “Multiverse of Madness.” Titled “What If … Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?,” it introduces a variant of Dr. Strange, Strange Supreme, created after Strange lost his girlfriend, Christine, in a car crash and became consumed by dark magic. The film plays an important role in establishing Wanda’s back story, as its events are the source of her grief in “WandaVision,” and continue to haunt her in “Multiverse of Madness.” In the earlier movie, Wanda was forced to kill Vision, with whom she was romantically involved, to prevent Thanos from stealing the Mind Stone from Vision’s head, only to watch Thanos reverse time, pluck it out and kill Vision again. Eagle-eyed fans will have spotted connections to “WandaVision,” “Loki” and even zombie versions of a few characters, apparently from Episode 5 of the lesser-known Disney+ animated series “What If … ?,” as well as the M.C.U. debut of Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, the founder of the X-Men.

Faced with infinite plot possibilities, Marvel couldn't come up with a less sexist Wanda story line for 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'?

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness feels like a bridge to further stories rather than a work that stands on its own. The superhero juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down as it balloons in ways that force audiences to subscribe to Disney+ to understand the full litany of connections across its characters and worlds. How can it when there’s no end on the other side of the bridge in sight? Olson is saddled with a character so thinly written as a crazy bitch, who can neither control her emotions nor her great powers, that of course her performance is half-hearted and tepid. (I won’t even get into the Illuminati, a group of superheroes in another dimension that is so clearly meant to satisfy internet fancasting.) The film strives to be blatantly weirder, bloodier, and more gruesome than the usual MCU fare (which is really not saying much as this series is primed to appeal to the widest audience possible), but it remains so disconnected from the tactile experience of inhabiting a living body that the effort feels pallid. The ideas that hold a gleam of potential are shot down by the film’s rank ugliness, its incessant pace of exposition, the utter slog of the first hour, and the insistence on special effects that render the horrifying as textureless. How can I not raise my eyebrow at the casting of America Chavez, who has predominantly read as Afro-Latina in comics? How can I not notice that the Zombie Doctor Strange has less frisson than Billy Butcherson’s mangled corpse in Hocus Pocus? Doctor Strange 2 is too keenly aware fans don’t need much to cheer at these wretched undertakings. Instead, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness left me more disenchanted than ever. The pleasure of director Sam Raimi’s trilogy of Spider-Man films beginning in 2002 can be found in the bombast. These are expectations that aren’t quite met in the latest MCU installment, a truth not so much surprising as it is grimly disappointing. The body can be a site of horror and power in the superhero genre, an idea that is made lightning bright by a combination of good scripting and the approach actors take to it.

Before seeing "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," here's everything you should know from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In one episode, titled “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?,” an alternate Strange turns to the dark side after Christine Palmer dies and he embarks on a selfish and doomed quest to save her. This universe’s Christine dies in the same car accident that destroyed the original Strange’s hands and set him down the path to become the Sorcerer Supreme. Overwhelmed by grief, this version of Strange uses the Time Stone to travel back and attempt to save Christine, but he repeatedly fails. Several Spider-Man enemies from other universes (i.e. other film franchises) show up, as do two other Peter Parkers (i.e. the ones played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield). Ultimately, Strange repairs the multiversal rift by casting a spell that makes everyone forget who Peter Parker is. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” reveals that Doctor Strange’s absence during the Blip means he’s no longer the Sorcerer Supreme — instead, the role fell to Wong. Without direct oversight from Wong, Strange tries to help Peter Parker (Tom Holland) by casting a spell in which the population will forget that he is Spider-Man. Peter interference during the spell — asking that it not apply to certain loved ones like Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and MJ (Zendaya) — causes Strange to open up an accidental tear in the multiverse. The dark doctor defeats the good version of himself and becomes so consumed by power and arrogance in his quest to save Christine, that he utterly collapses his universe and ends up trapped inside the tiny bubble that is left of it, alone. “WandaVision” ends with Wanda in a remote cabin studying the Darkhold, and suddenly hearing the voices of her sons scream out to her. By the end of the series, Loki’s female variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) kills the head of the TVA, He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), and the multiverse is borne. After teaming up with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland) in “Infinity War,” Doctor Strange finds himself captured and taken to space as Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) minions try to pry the Time Stone away from him. Such is the backbone of “WandaVision,” which finds Wanda’s magic so powerful that she even gives “birth” to twins, named Billy and Tommy. They age rapidly into tweens over the course of just a few days, and possess their own superpowers. Marvel movies and Disney+ series like “Loki” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” have breached the topic of the multiverse, but Doctor Strange is plunging right in, with Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlett Witch, at his side. At Kamar-Taj, Strange befriends two fellow sorcerers: Wong (Benedict Wong), the acerbic librarian, and Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a black-and-white thinker who becomes disillusioned with how Strange and the Ancient One bend their moral codes to reach their ends. After helming the original Tobey Maguire “Spider-Man” trilogy in the 2000s and changing the the comic book genre forever, Raimi has not touched a superhero movie since, and his last directorial effort was 2013’s “Oz the Great and Powerful.”

Nearly twenty years to the date of his first Marvel-based project Spider-Man (2002), director Sam Raimi, who didn't direct a superhero movie since 2007's ...

It was uplifting to see the director run with this opportunity and do it his way. Gomez was poised throughout the picture and impressed in several action sequences to boot. The film — which releases Friday, May 6 — seemed to spar with a multiversal variant of itself for much of its two-hour, six-minute runtime.

Why do Wanda Maximoff and our title hero seem to be zombies, and what is the Darkhold? Here's a rundown and a viewing guide to help.

At the end of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the spell appears to have worked, but it remains to be seen if or how the consequences of Dr. Strange’s actions will play into “Multiverse of Madness.” This was necessary because of a botched spell Dr. Strange had cast that was designed to make everyone forget Peter was Spider-Man, which only ended up pulling Spider-Men and villains from alternate M.C.U. universes into the same one. After she vanishes in his arms, the evil Dr. Strange rips apart reality and is left alone to nurse his broken heart. In Dr. Strange’s “Avengers” debut, he is kidnapped by Ebony Maw, who is after the Time Stone. Tony Stark and Peter Parker eventually rescue him, and it becomes evident how much more powerful he has become since “Doctor Strange,” as he holds his own against Thanos, the Eternal-Deviant warlord, despite possessing only a single Infinity Stone compared with Thanos’s four. The trailers for “Multiverse of Madness” have made it out to be a crossover event that’s maybe not “Avengers: Endgame”-level, but certainly close. Episodes 8 and 9 also show Ultron discovering multiple realities and seeking to conquer them. But those who didn’t watch “WandaVision” may be left going “Westview what?” after the new movie. The director of “Multiverse of Madness,” Sam Raimi, has said that the new film is a direct continuation of the last Marvel Studios blockbuster, “ Spider-Man: No Way Home,” released in December. When we last saw Dr. Strange, he’d just caused everyone to forget the existence of Peter Parker to stop the multiverse from exploding. In “Multiverse of Madness,” a distraught Wanda is still struggling to process the original Vision’s death in “Avengers: Infinity War,” as well as her attempt to escape it in the fantasy she created in “WandaVision.” In one of the trailers, she is greeted by her sons in their Westview home, though Wanda’s voice-over identifies the apparently joyful reunion only as a recurring dream. This nine-episode animated anthology series, which tells the stories of alternate versions of M.C.U. heroes in multiple realities, debuted with little fanfare in August, but Episode 4 provides some important context for “Multiverse of Madness.” Titled “What If … Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?,” it introduces a variant of Dr. Strange, Strange Supreme, created after Strange lost his girlfriend, Christine, in a car crash and became consumed by dark magic. The film plays an important role in establishing Wanda’s back story, as its events are the source of her grief in “WandaVision,” and continue to haunt her in “Multiverse of Madness.” In the earlier movie, Wanda was forced to kill Vision, with whom she was romantically involved, to prevent Thanos from stealing the Mind Stone from Vision’s head, only to watch Thanos reverse time, pluck it out and kill Vision again. Eagle-eyed fans will have spotted connections to “WandaVision,” “Loki” and even zombie versions of a few characters, apparently from Episode 5 of the lesser-known Disney+ animated series “What If … ?,” as well as the M.C.U. debut of Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, the founder of the X-Men.

Who is the stranger in purple at the end of 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'? Here's what Charlize Theron's magic user is all about.

If Cumberbatch decides to hang up the cape, Charlize Theron is now an obvious successor. First, there’s the matter of incursions. Clea ascends to the role and now has her own series, Strange, by writer Jed Mackay and artist Marcelo Ferreira. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Clea first appeared in Strange Tales #126 as an unnamed silver-haired woman trapped in the Dark Dimension. Her name was officially revealed two years later, in Strange Tales #146. The multiverse has finally stabilized, for now, but that doesn’t mean Doctor Strange’s duties are over. The scene itself is formulaic.