Following the recent release of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, the anticipation for ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ has been at an all-time high. With characters like Wong, the current Sorcerer Supreme, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, and Mordo already confirmed to make their re-appearances, there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding new characters who we could see make their MCU debuts. The multiverse was only slightly teased in the latest Spider-Man movie, with so much more to be offered later on in this multiverse-saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As seen before towards the ending of Doctor Strange’s first film in 2016, Karl Mordo, an adversary of Doctor Strange, came to a realization of the Ancient One’s true source of power. It was ultimately revealed in the film that the Ancient One used magic that came from the Dark Dimension—where Mordo looked at this thought in disbelief when Strange initially mentioned this earlier on in the film in a battle with Kaecilius. It was also teased that Mordo would look to turn evil with his infamous quote,
Power has a Purpose... Now I see at last what’s wrong with the world… too many sorcerers.
In this new packaging art for the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel, Doctor Strange is seen as Defender Strange—a variant of Doctor Strange who more than likely teamed up with the Defenders from the comics. He could either re-shape the MCU’s Doctor Strange or dramatically alter his/our timeline in the MCU. Earlier in the comics, Namor, the Incredible Hulk, the Silver Surfer, Nighthawk, Valkyrie, Beast, Gargoyle, Hellcat were members of the Defenders with Strange being the unofficial yet determined leader of the group. But more recently in the Netflix series’, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist are the more recent members.
Another packaging art for the second Doctor Strange film features a new look at Mordo—who more than likely resided in an alternate universe to take on the title of "Master Mordo" and "Sorcerer Supreme" of that respective timeline. Rumors also suggest that he will indeed be a member of Marvel’s Illuminati—a group of heroes/villains that work secretly in cohesion with the main story line(s) of the MCU/Marvel Comics.
It will be quite the site to see Strange take on the challenges of a new and upgraded Supreme Mordo alongside his variant Supreme self in the Strange Supreme. It will also be very interesting to see where Scarlet Witch plays in all of this, in addition to the Defender Strange as shown above.
This epic sequel plans on re-shaping the MCU’s heroes drastically and reality as we know it. Although the new Spider-Man film was outstanding in introducing the multiverse, this movie will expand and answer many questions regarding the multiverse at whole without teasing it.
Other characters like Deadpool, who is confirmed to be canon in an alternate universe, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Loki alongside his variant Sylvie and Mobius, Kang the Conqueror, Wiccan and Speed from Wandavision, Professor X, and Mister Fantastic could be teased as he could later return in the MCU’s Fantastic Four film set to release in Phase Five.
Even though everything listed in the previous paragraph is not confirmed, the ideas behind over half of them being in this film are definitely possible. Anything is possible in this film, as we now know from Tom Holland’s third Spider-Man film. And the limits to this sequel are nowhere near visible to the naked eye. New leaks and trailers regarding the film are set to come out shortly, and there is without a doubt a ton of anticipation surrounding them.