A scene in Marvellatest product of, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is sure to dominate the conversation about the movie for weeks. If you’ve seen the trailer, you already know it. It was the moment that Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) approached Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and said, “The Illuminati will see you now.” This is no Illuminati lore, the secret organization often referred to as the puppeteers of society. This is Marvel’s Illuminati, a group of heroes in a different reality from the one audiences have seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far, and it includes a lot of cameos that we won’t spoil here.
Marvel fans have seen versions of this moment many times. It’s a moment meant to set up 100 more movies and shows, or to remind you how much intellectual property Disney owns. Or both. It’s a narrative tool meant to illustrate superheroes coming together to save the universe (of course), but the scene is also an opportunity to tease, say, the next big reboot or blink. eyes with Disney + show What if…? In other words, it’s real fanfic. (OK, if you don’t like spoilers, you can stop reading now.)
None of this would be possible without the multiverse. Like wired pointed out last year, WandaVision opened the door to many realities in a way not just one Sorcerer Supreme the movie has many Doctor Stranges but also Wanda from WandaVision (Elizabeth Olsen) could try to skip a timeline where she joins children she never gave birth to in the main MCU timeline and also cross a timeline with a very X-Man. prominent, who comes from a universe where Magneto could be her father. (Rub!) A lot of this, like Strange’s appearance in Spider-Man: There’s no way homeAs a result Disney now owns more Marvel toys than it did two decades ago, after acquiring Fox (the former parent company of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men) in 2019 and cutting a deal. to fit Sony’s Spidey movies on a larger scale than the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Fans dream of this tool. Who doesn’t want Professor Charles Xavier to come with some moral authority? Everyone wonders who will win if Captain Marvel and Scarlet Witch go to waste. (An insignificant subset might also suggest them kissing and makeup, but that’s more of a hack.) Now that Disney has all of these franchises under its spell, they intend to use them. Marvel honcho Kevin Feige has promised a lot. Doctor Strange meeting the Illuminati is just the beginning.
But that’s not the only way Madness’s Multiverse It feels like fanfic. It is also stylistic options. Directed by Sam Raimi, the mastermind behind the 1981 horror classic Dead Devil who went on to direct Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man films, Madness easily the most horror of the Marvel movies. So it’s also a genre mashup. (Because Dead fans, it also has a hell of a cameo.) Add to that the score Danny Elfman interestingly moves closer to Trent Reznor’s territory and it all feels like watching a Marvel movie in another universe. Of course, this is the point and it certainly makes Madness cheerful in the way of saying, the eternal are not. But it can have a bit of a kitchen sink feel. (Perhaps tired tropes Wanda nearly fell in could also be in this combination, but that’s another story.)
For a long time, fans have lived in a world with many separate multiverses — they can keep Iron Man and get rid of the X-Men and write their own stories if they want them to meet — overcome they look great, but may not come without consequences.
