Fridge / Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Fridge Pages are Spoilers Off, You Have Been Warned!

Fridge Brilliance

• One poster displays Hinduism motifs, namely the many selves and many arms the Sorcerers take on. In Hindu Mythology, having many avatars is a sign of ultimate power.
  • Wanda in the poster takes on the role of Kali, the goddess of darkness and chaos... but not an evil goddess, as she is also the goddess of motherhood.
• Expanding on Hinduism, the Third Eye as born by variants of Strange in the film, is said to represent enlightenment and clarity of vision, through knowledge. It also represents the power of Shiva the destroyer god, who often incinerated people with that eye. Both the destructive and enlightened sides are seen in the film.
• With the revelation that some of the other variants of Wanda do end up having Tommy and Billy, who are real beings and not manifestations of Sacred Timeline Wanda's desire to have children, it retroactively means that during the Westview incident, Sacred Timeline Wanda subconsciously manifested Tommy and Billy after having seen them in her dreams while living her other variants' lives.
  • This also justifies where Quentin Beck got the idea that the main MCU universe was Earth-616—presumably, he had a counterpart on Earth-838 (perhaps working for the Illuminati or Baxter Foundation) who had learned of the numerical designations of other earths.
    • Heck, Beck probably stole the idea to set Mysterio up as a Fake Ultimate Hero from the Illuminati's decision to do the same thing to Supreme Strange (no, not that one).
• In Earth-838, red means go and green means stop. When 838-Mordo is introduced, despite seeming friendly, his green costume ends up marking him out as a threat, and the Sands of Nisanti used to nullify Strange's powers are likewise green, while 838-Wanda isn't a threat (at least until 616-Wanda dreamwalks into her mind).
• Why did the Illuminati in Earth-838 easily dismiss the danger of the Scarlet Witch? It's because their Wanda lives a happy life that is real, thus never prompting her to seek further power, which in turn never led her to becoming the Scarlet Witch, and thus easily puts her much lower on their threat list. The fact that they all got massacred when encountering Scarlet Witch only shows just how harmless they thought their Wanda is.
• When Wanda attacks Kamar-Taj, she uses her abilities to manipulate a nervous sorcerer into fleeing and disrupting a magic shield. She digs into his mind to drive him to commit a rash and ultimately destructive act, using the same technique she used on the Hulk when she first appeared in the MCU.
• In some ways, the Illuminati's attitude on Earth-838 reflects the reasons they failed in the comics; they all decided that they knew best and ignored any protests that others might have a better idea until it was too late.
  • At the same time, key members show that, in some regard, they're not wrong to assume that doppelgängers will always be the same as their counterparts; where Mordo's counterpart retains his other self's conviction of his own righteousness even when resorting to darker methods, Charles Xavier maintains his fundamental faith in people to be better than their mistakes rather than choosing to define them by when they fall.
    • It also makes sense for Xavier to recognize 616-Strange's potential for goodness, considering that he can directly evaluate Strange's character using his psychic powers.
• When Scarlet Witch appears at the home of Earth-838 Wanda, terrifying the children, their TV set is showing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, another movie with a witch as the villain.
  • There's also an earlier point in the film where the TV depicts Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and his wife Ortensia. The two are married and have loads of kids, which as Epic Mickey indicates, they both care for. In that game, Oswald lost his beloved too, and it made him bitter and depressed to the point where he contemplated taking Mickey's life as his own like Wanda wanted to. Oswald's cartoon is playing while Wanda attempts to go through with just that.
  • When 616 Wanda shows up, the boys immediately identify her as a witch. Why? One, they're watching Snow White at the time, and Wanda's headdress and whole look kinda resembles the Evil Queen, who could shapeshift to look like other people. Two, her costume is based on a "traditional Sokovian fortune teller". Which, in a kid's mind, is awfully close to 'witch'.
• The destruction of the Book of Vishanti might seem as the low point for the movie's heroes, however a rewatch or a careful eye can see the page the camera lingers on has a star on it. Strange never needed a spell or weapon from the book, he had the one person who could defeat the Scarlet Witch with him all along.
• The lack of any mention of the 838 version of Vision seems weird at first, considering how important he is to Wanda's backstory and being the "father" of the kids in the 616 universe. Until you realise that in this universe, Ultron works as Tony Stark originally intended him to (and the drones appear to have no complex intelligence of their own), so it's very likely this universe never had a Vision in the first place.
  • According to Elizabeth Olsen though, Wanda and Vision are divorced on Earth-838.
• A few people pointed out that Wanda's line about her and Strange being perceived differently for breaking the rules isn't fair in the trailer seemed like it was going to be about Strange's spell almost ending the universe in Spider-Man: No Way Home, only for the movie to reveal that she was talking about Strange giving Thanos the time stone in Avengers: Infinity War. While part of why this was is because this movie was originally planned to be released before No Way Home and wouldn't have taken that into account, it makes more sense for Wanda to mention this for a pretty obvious reason. Strange casting the spell in No Way Home seemed to only be known to that movie's main characters, and not even he would know about it at this point because the follow-up spell to make everyone forget Peter's existence would make him forget the specifics of the first spell too. Absolutely no one would know about what he did, including Wanda, which means that she could only call him out on what happened in Infinity War and nothing else. Also, the fact that it was him who gave Thanos the Time Stone in particular would stay with Wanda, because Thanos used that stone to undo her sacrifice and kill Vision, making her killing the man she loves worthless.
  • No Way Home still has a subtle influence, more than Strange realizes. Even though he and everyone else in the world have forgotten Peter Parker is Spider-Man, some part of him subconsciously remembers how selfless the boy was. Remember how he was willing to send the multiversal villains back to their home dimensions instead of letting Peter cure them first? Or how Peter was willing to throw away his life and make everyone forget him to prevent the multiverse from collapsing in on itself? Strange does mention the incident to America, meaning he still has some memory of it, but deep down, he recalls Peter's selflessness. It explains how the same man who was once willing to sacrifice Tony and Peter if it meant protecting the Time Stone, and who did let half the universe die for five years so they could finally beat Thanos, would be so willing to protect America and not do what his Defender counterpart did.
• The movie's title, Multiverse of Madness - MOM. It's a story about Dr. Strange up against the obsession of a mother. And it debuted on America's Mother's Day weekend.
• By opening with Defender Strange and America Chavez fleeing from a demon, this film quite literally hits the ground running.
• In the first movie, the Ancient One taps into the Dark Dimension for her immortality. Such an act is forbidden because as we have seen with Kaecilius, evil people can abuse it. The Ancient One, though, has a good conscience and uses her power to protect her students in Kamar-Taj. Using dark powers for good comes full circle when Doctor Strange uses the Darkhold to dreamwalk into a corpse, but being the superhero that he is, does not let it corrupt him as he does it to protect America Chavez.
• The roster of the Illuminati is perfectly optimized for dealing with their version of Thanos, who was armed with the Space, Power, Reality, and Mind Stones. Professor Xavier could counter and combat the mind-controlling effects of the Mind Stone. Black Bolt could probably use his full power to match the output of the Power Stone. Doctor Strange and Mordo could reverse any changes made by the Reality Stone, and since there’s two of them, they might even be able to surpass it in attrition. Captain Marvel, being empowered by it, could probably outright destroy the Space Stone. Captain Carter could act as a coordinator and tactician to direct them to best effect in doing so, while Reed Richards could focus on dealing with Thanos’s keystone army, likely by blocking the signal that directed them, and also acting as a wild card against Thanos. Also, given how Thanos used the Reality Stone on the Guardians of the Galaxy, Reed might have some degree of immunity to such forced physical changes due to his malleable body.
  • The roster of the Illuminati explains why Thanos keeps his armor and sword. In the Sacred Timeline, Thanos shedding his armor represented him being overconfident in his capabilities with the Infinity Stones and it would have provided him useful protection against Thor using Stormbreaker. Because he is up against Captain Marvel and Black Bolt, who combined could combat the Power Stone, he brought his armor to give himself extra protection and brought his sword to give himself a literal edge in physical combat, which will help, because in the Sacred Timeline, Thanos could not do any damage to Captain Marvel with regular strikes.
  • This also may make one wonder if Thanos being defeated in this manner contradicts the what Strange said in Avengers: Infinity War about giving Thanos the Time Stone being the only way to win. If the Sacred Timeline Strange used the timestone and did indeed see how Thanos 838 was defeated, it is possible Strange came to the conclusion that utterly destroying another universe with an incursion due to Strange 838 experimenting with the Dark Hold is a Pyrrhic Victory and could hardly be considered an ethical way to "win" due to all of the casualties inflicted on the way to the Book of Vishanti being used as the solution. This is just one possible guess, however.
• Why might Maria Rambeau as Captain Marvel be more of a Blood Knight than Carol ever was in the role? There's a likely unacknowledged reality here: she may or may not have had Monica. Considering how Maria and Carol were basically Gender Flip versions of characters from Top Gun before they got separated, it's likely Maria did not receive the Character Development of being a mother, becoming more cautious because she has to survive to raise her girl (to the extent that Monica was the one driving her instead to rediscover her passion for adventure).
  • There's possible Fridge Horror to why Maria is more of a Blood Knight. She is wearing the Starforce suit but with its original color. If she was the pilot Mar-Vell chose instead of Carol, then Maria was kidnapped and indoctrinated by the Kree instead and it is possible that she is still loyal to them. The other explanation is that Maria eventually rebelled against the Kree like Carol did but never got the idea to change her suit colors, especially without Monica around to help her with her costume.
• Of course America Chavez thinks food is free in most universes. Strange revealed she's been jumping to the ones she needs. Food is a pretty basic human need, and going to ones where she doesn't have to worry about paying for it is a manifestation of her abilities. Needing to get to 838 was just a higher priority this time, especially since she has Strange to take care of the food guy.
• Why did 838-Wanda forgive 616-Wanda so quickly? We don't know how much of the "puppeteer's" thought and emotions bleed through into the host. Also, Wanda has mental powers—she can feel 616's pain.
  • Alternately, maybe she could see what 616-Wanda was doing, including her conversation with the Illuminati. She would have seen the entire reason for the rampage was that 616 just wanted her children back - a feeling 838 would obviously sympathize with.
  • Or there's a deeper, more profound, but far simpler explanation: if you can't forgive and understand yourself, how can you ever forgive and understand anyone else? If you start to hate yourself, won't you hate everyone else? That would lead down the exact path Wanda-616 took to reach this point.
  • When Xavier breaches Wanda's mind to rescue 838, the only thing among the debris in 616's shattered mindscape is an old television set. What's playing on repeat? WandaVision. 838-Wanda was trapped and the only thing she was able to see was the false reality her alternate self created to escape all the pain and loss she had experienced.
• Xavier is based on the 90s X-Men animated series version with his suit, yellow hoverchair and even the show's theme playing when he appears. This Xavier was infamously known and memed for having his psychic abilities overpowered almost all the time. It's no surprise that happened here to him as well, given his inspiration.
  • At the meta level, this is likely because Disney+ is already carrying that show while proper MCU X-Men works are still being developed.
• 838-Professor X says the "Just because someone stumbles" quote attributed to his Fox Variant nearly verbatim. While it isn't out of the realm of possibility that Xaviers think similarly, the movie establishes people have contact with their Variants via dreams, so 838-X could potentially have heard the quote in a dream he had.
• Another reason the Illuminati underestimated Wanda is likely because they weren't aware of the true power of the Infinity Stones. Assuming that at least the Space Stone still played its part in empowering Captain Marvel and was used by HYDRA as in canon, even if the Masters of the Mystic Arts retained the Time Stone, the Illuminati wouldn't have direct experience of what most of the Stones can do. As a result, they never got a chance to actually see the Infinity Stones in action, and thus assumed it was only a minor threat.
• Why is the MCU called Earth-616 when it's actually Earth-199999? It was the name given to the movie universe by those from another universe. As noted in several works by Marvel's greatest competition such as Infinite Crisis and Injustice (2021), each Earth tends to name itself Earth-1 and all other Earths a different number (later film adaptions have the Injustice Earth and the Earth of the second Superman called by two different names in film while the former has the Earth-2 Superman note they just let the Justice League call the Justice Society Earth Earth-2 for simplicity's sake). Everyone has their own count and naming scheme for alternate Earths.
  • It also helps when you keep in mind that the main numbering system used for universes in Marvel continuity originated from the multiversal Captain Britain Corps. The Illuminati of Earth-838, on the other hand, might not even know that the Captain Britain Corps exists, let alone know what the Corps are naming the universes. Even if they are aware of each other, they might still end up using different systems to catalogue the universes.
• After dreaming-walking into 838 Wanda, 616 Wanda pauses and glances at the audience. She's seen every universe, so she's aware of the reality of the audience as well.
• There can logically be no episode of What If…? based on this movie because there are no variants of America Chavez.
• It's a good thing that Wanda destroyed the Darkhold in every universe. If she didn't, other variants of Wanda could attempt the same thing she did and it could result in much worse consequences if they are more malicious. With the threat of the Darkhold gone, America doesn’t have to worry about another Wanda trying to capture her.
  • It also seems rather unfair for the side of good that the Darkhold has a copy of itself in every universe while the book of Vishanti only has one copy and it exists in the space between universes that is rather difficult to reach even with magic. So it is rather fitting that both books are gone by the end of the story to even the odds.
• The Illuminati assuming 616 Doctor Strange is dangerous based on the actions of his 838 counterpart seems harsh and unfair, but it's very likely they're not just going off of that one example — of the five Doctor Strange variants seen in the MCU so far, three end up being corrupted by power, and of the two that don't, one was willing to kill a child in cold blood for the greater good. Based on the evidence presented, it seems Doctor Strange going bad or becoming a ruthless Knight Templar is more common than him staying good, which the Illuminati would know since they keep tabs on other universes.
  • It's not just knowing about the evil variants of Strange, even good intentions are dangerous for Stranges. 838 Strange managed to destroy a universe not out of malice but due to his own overconfidence and lack of self-control. While dreamwalking, he must have seen the same thing Sinister Strange did in his alternates, that it was just a matter of time before they took up the Darkhold for one reason or another and started screwing up the multiverse.
• Wanda’s Scarlet Witch costume is more textured in this movie to reflect her being the villain but if one looks closely, the textures concentrate into a slight black hole to her left, where her heart would be. Wanda in this movie has lost her heart.
• The reveal about Strange’s sister Donna puts his Control Freak behavior and need for a perfect record as a neurosurgeon in the first movie in a sadder context. It’s likely that one reason why he refuses to try to operate on certain people is because he doesn’t want to fail to save them and then feel responsible for their death.
  • Adding to this, we learn that Donna died after falling through the ice of a frozen lake - presumably drowning. Worth noting that when Stephen and America are falling through different universes, he grabs onto her as soon as they go through an underwater universe. It's possible that Donna is the reason Stephen became so protective of America, and shows a softer more encouraging side that he hasn't shown with anyone else before - possibly seeing a chance to redeem himself by saving another young girl who needs his help, guidance and comfort.
• Plenty of fans assumed we'd see 616-Mordo crusading against sorcery in the Strange sequel, given the previous film's post-credits scene. That particular outcome didn't happen... and yet, that clip did foreshadow an essential element to this film, because it showed audiences that powerful magic-wielders in the MCU can steal away less-adept wielders' power.
• The way in which the villain is defeated is the same as in the first movie: The villain is built up as an Invincible Villain that Strange and the other heroes have no chance against, and it leads to them (Strange in the first movie and Chavez in this movie) using their wits instead to get the villain to stop their crusade.
• Fridge Funny: Dreams are actually glimpses into your Variants' lives. While this means your worst nightmares actually happened somewhere, Darcy may have had a dream that she was getting married to an anthropomorphic duck.
• Why does Charles Xavier try so hard to free 838 Wanda from her Sacred Timeline counterpart's control? Well, if Peter/Pietro is still a member of the X-Men like in the Fox universe, chances are that Charles knows Wanda personally, and so of course would want to free his student's sister from her dreamwalking variant. That and she's Magneto's daughter.
• Wanda claims that Billy and Tommy exist in "every other universe". Similarly, Sinister Strange claims that there is no universe where Stephen and Christine are together. Both of these statements seem quite improbable in an infinite multiverse. Unless you consider that the Darkhold was selectively showing them what they needed to see in order to corrupt them.
  • Another possible explanation is that Billy and Tommy's existence is an absolute point in time because they are needed to be a part of the Young Avengers, so they may exist in the future of Earth-616. The same could easily apply to Strange and Christine not being together.
• Why was Wanda able to defeat Captain Carter so easily? Well, Wanda fought alongside Steve's Captain America for years, and has first-hand experience of his combat style. Also, Steve was one of the people, the other being Natasha, who trained her to fight, meaning it's possible they created a combination attack using the shield.
• Only three of the six Illuminati members, Mr. Fantastic, Professor X, and Black Bolt are members in the comics. Perfectly balanced.
• If you look closely at 838 Thanos's Infinity Gauntlet, you'll notice that the Time and Soul stones are both missing from it. Given there were plans for an Inhumans movie to be made sometime after Infinity War was released before being shelved, it's possible that the Soul Stone was being guarded in Attilan like many people speculated it would've been in the main continuity before Inhumans were excised altogether. Since the Soul Stone is not on the Gauntlet, it seems Black Bolt and the Inhumans were successful in defending its theft.
• When escaping from Wanda/Scarlet Witch, one of the fireballs lands on the Cloak of Levitation, creating a burn-hole. Later when 838/Christine repairs it, the patch she uses is blue. This is because the 838/Cloak, seen in the flashback when 838/Strange was killed by Black Bolt, was also blue.
• Being corrupted by the Darkhold and losing her sanity aside, there's a twisted logic to Wanda declaring that Reed's children will be fine as long as their mother is alive. Of course she believes that - she's probably dreamed of many universes where she's a single mother happily raising her boys without issue, 838 possibly inclusive. But she can't dream/see a universe where she doesn't exist, so she's never seen a universe where the boys are being raised by Vision or another father, without her.
• It’s odd that America Chavez didn't see any Spider people in the Multiverse since they are needed on every Earth. However, she probably didn't pay attention to the world's spiders because she was too busy running for her life. Doctor Strange seems to be the superhero she's most familiar with because he would have knowledge of the Multiverse that could be of use to Chavez.
• Why is Captain Carter still a member of the Avengers despite the fact that her organization as a whole is practically defunct due to the Ultron program? Well, just like Steve in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the fact that Peggy is in a new time period with no friends or family to live her life with means she likely threw herself into her work to fill that loneliness, as well as to serve as a backup in case Ultron went rogue or was shut down in the interim. Plus, someone has to represent the group in the Illuminati.
• How is the Ultron program working successfully here when it failed with disastrous consequences in two other universes? Simple, those universes didn't have Reed Richards, the smartest man alive. And given that the Avengers and Fantastic Four seem to be at the very least cooperative with one another, it would only make sense that Tony would work with him alongside (or possibly instead of) Bruce, leading Reed to correct mistakes they might've made, or to stop things from getting out of hand later on.
• Strange puking almost immediately after telling America that this isn't his first wild ride. In his first movie, the Ancient One sent his mind out on a wild trip, but his body stayed in the chair.
• Captain Carter is a variant of Captain America with a Union Jack on her shield, so she clearly still identifies with her British roots. That makes her Captain Britain, a character whose comic version is a defender of the multiverse,
• This may or may not have been the intention of the original comics artists, but Stephen's main clothing colors are red and blue (with the occasional gold or yellow accent), while Clea's is violet. Red + blue = violet...an indication that they're meant to be!

Fridge Horror

• The movie implies that everything that has happened to you in your nightmares, however surreal and disturbing, has happened to a different version of you in the multiverse. Sweet dreams!
  • However, if you're a lucid dreamer, it also implies that somewhere in the multiverse, there's a superpowered version of you who can rebuild the very fabric of reality.
    • Given what Wanda does with this power in this very movie, that thought might not be as comforting as it initially seems.
    • Also, aren’t lucid dreamers usually aware they’re dreaming? As an example in SCP there are people called reality benders who can well, bend reality. They progress through a couple stages and most eventually reach stage 4 which is characterised by developing god complexes. So its possible that those superpowered versions are also crazy soliphists.
  • Remember when Bucky Barnes had that nightmare/flashback of him killing an innocent man? Looks like he has a Variant who may still be the Winter Soldier in his universe...
  • Somewhere in the multiverse, there is a world in which Wong is constantly naked and being chased by an evil clown for some reason.
  • Did everyone on Earth have very vivid nightmares about the universe disintegrating, a zombie apocalypse, and a nuclear extinction? And do these types of nightmares extend beyond the MCU and its divergent timelines? Has Spider-Gwen had a nightmare that she was falling to her death in a clock tower? Likewise, have Peters 1, 2, and 3 had a nightmare of turning into the Lizard and dying, being beaten to death by Kingpin, or becoming a monstrous symbiote king? Has Bruce Banner ever had nightmares of being sent to space by Tony, finding a wife, then losing her? Have Tony, Reed, Strange, or Black Bolt had nightmares of the the Hulk coming back for revenge? Did Janet or Hank ever get nightmares of Hank gassing her with bug spray? Did Tony or Steve ever dream of their civil war escalating into Tony getting another hero killed and Steve getting executed? Does Carol ever get nightmares of nearly killing Tony? Hell, the heroes (as well as any good or anti-heroic versions of Magneto himself) of the MCU, the X-Men Foxverse, Raimiverse, Webbverse, FF Foxverse, and Spider-Verses must have been given a hell of a nightmare of Magneto losing all of his marbles and causing floods and other disasters that involved millions of civilians and several heroes dying in agony while everyone else struggled to survive.
    • Related to this is that both Peter-1 and Peter-3 would have grown up having nightmares about a madman in a green costume trying to beat them to death, a scientist with four mechanical arms creating an artificial sun and black goo attempting to take over their body. Not to mention both would have had nightmares of their uncle dying, while Peter-1 would also have had nightmares of a lizard monster and a man made out of electricity trying to kill him.
    • Also related to this, several varients of Miles must of have had a nightmare where they are chased by several different Spider-Beings. As well as any Miguel O'Hara varients having a similar nightmare where they yell to Miles' face that he wasn't supposed to be Spider-Man.
  • It gets worse when you consider Sinister Strange brings up being responsible for Strange dreaming that he is falling due to dreamwalking into counterparts and deliberately killing them. When's the last time YOU had a dream about falling seemingly endlessly? The implicit fates of certain counterparts is troubling to say the least.
  • With the reveal about dreams really being alternate realities, it means that Tony's PTSD-induced nightmares in Iron Man 3 could really be the experience of another Tony who went through the same.
  • Just because your dreams are the experiences of your alternate selves, doesn't necessarily mean every dream is an alternate-universe experience. Plus, everyone in the world has uncountable alternate selves; it would be impossible to experience all of your other selves' major moments in dreams.
• 838-Mordo, who is just as dickish and arrogant as his MCU counterpart, is the sole surviving member of the Illuminati.
• Monica Rambeau was among the few who believed Wanda was the real victim of what happened in Westview and was sympathetic towards her. Then a few years later, Wanda kills her mother, albeit an alternate one.
  • Also in a similar vein, Captain America was one of Wanda's closest friends, showing sympathy for her before her Heel–Face Turn in Age of Ultron, comforting her about her guilt over Lagos in Civil War and helping her survive when they were on the run in Infinity War. Now Wanda murders an alternate self of the woman Steve loves.
• What would the heroes of Earth-838 think of 838-Wanda now that her actions while possessed by 616-Wanda resulted in the deaths of 838's greatest heroes? Especially now that, as mentioned above, 838-Mordo is the sole surviving member of the Illuminati, who would no doubt believe that Wanda — no matter which universe she comes from — is a threat? 616-Wanda may have potentially brought 838-Wanda and her children into danger and distrusted by their own universe.
  • While how canon they should be considered is up in the air, in Jessica Jones (2015), law enforcement were reluctant to accept "mind control" as a defense due to the legal can of worms it could open. If Earth-838 is similar, they could actively suppress the concept of dreamwalking from the public to avoid panic, leaving 838-Wanda as a scapegoat.
• Also on Earth 838 - many of the Illuminati members' deaths have massive ramifications if their supporting casts exist in this universe.
  • With Black Bolt dead, the Inhumans of Attilan suddenly have no king. If they're lucky, the Genetic Council can pick his heir; if they're unlucky, his insane brother Maximus seizes control.
  • If there is a variant of the Avengers in this universe and Captain Carter was one of its founding members, the death of one of its leaders (and arguably the person who holds the group together with her leadership skills) means there's a highly likely chance that the Avengers group would fall apart, not to mention the damage it would do to this world's Steve Rogers if he's still alive in the present.
  • Captain Marvel's death means the entire galaxy of 838 lost one of its most powerful cosmic heroes, meaning that unless there are other cosmic defenders like Thor or the Guardians of the Galaxy, the universe of 838 is vulnerable to potential cosmic threats.
  • With Professor X dead, the mutant community has lost one of its most powerful members, and the only one who can keep some of them in check. If Magneto exists in this world, one of the few people he has any respect and/or affection for just died fighting a battle the humans started. Worse — if Wanda is his daughter in this world, he's going to fight back against the massive backlash her (unwilling) actions caused.
  • And Reed Richards' death raises two major questions. One is what happens to his reality-warping son Franklin, who has problems controlling his powers even when raised in a (mostly) stable household. The other is what this world's Dr. Doom does now that his one arch-nemesis is gone. In many iterations, his obsession with proving himself better than Reed is his main weakness. With Reed out of the picture, he's suddenly a lot less predictable to any surviving heroes.
  • Finally, if the Illuminati have been helping to monitor multiversal incursions, their destruction also increases the risk of such events, especially after the death of He Who Remains and the implication that his death has affected the functioning of the TVA.
• Sinister Strange has been hopping around the multiverse killing other Doctor Stranges. That's bad enough, but remember the way the Darkhold lets you enter other universes — Dreamwalking. He hasn't just been pushing Stranges off of cliffs, he's been possessing their bodies and making them commit suicide.
  • On that note, in how many realities did Christine (who, in all realities, seems to have had real affection for Stephen) and her husband (who hero-worships the sorcerer) talk with Strange at the wedding, hear him claim (obviously falsely) that he is happy...and wake up the next morning to hear that he killed himself?
• If incursions are created by multiversal travel then what does that mean for the King Loki reality from What If…? (2021), considering that it has a Natasha Romanoff that is not of that reality now as of the final episode of the first season?
  • Then again, the Watcher was responsible for that one; considering his obvious power and knowledge of alternate realities, he may be able to take steps to mitigate any potential risk of such travel.
• In the post-credits scene, Strange is showing signs of dark magic corruption and is confronted by Clea, the niece of Dormammu who tells him his actions have caused an incursion, which if not fixed will destroy the universe, before he and Clea go into the Dark Dimension, the home of dark magic and the Darkhold to try and stop it. Given Strange is already suffering from corruption, going into the Dark Dimension may not bode well for him.
• Wanda destroyed all copies of the Darkhold, as well as Mount Wundagore... but the latter was only in her universe as far as we see. It's possible that there are other iterations of it in the Multiverse, meaning her sacrifice at the end may have been for nothing. AGAIN. And even if she destroyed every Mount Wundagore in the Multiverse, Chthon, the one who created the runes inscribed in that mount and in every Darkhold, is still alive.
• Wanda's apple orchard when she removes the hex is revealed to be a blighted hellscape. How far has the corruption spread, and what happened to the original farmers?
• Assuming Wanda survived at the end, she will have to live the rest of her life knowing she murdered innocent people. You can't become Ax-Crazy and then go back to working with the Avengers as if nothing happened.
  • The most likely way for Wanda to return at this point would be if she were from an alternate timeline or universe who never experienced the events of WandaVision and this film (like 838 Wanda) nor has met her 616 counterpart and somehow dropped into the main universe. If a different Wanda with different memories and experiences was introduced, it will be a cruel experience for her since everyone else will not accept her for her counterpart's actions while she herself would be innocent. Strange, on the other hand, would likely believe she's not from his universe. If that Wanda found out about about what her counterpart did, she would not take it well.
• What happened to the Iron Man of 838? The Iron Man-esque design of the Illuminati's Ultron Sentries suggest that Tony was still the one to create them so for him to be absent from the Illuminati (of which Iron Man was traditionally a prominent member) does not suggest good things about his health.
  • Notably, the Illuminati audience chamber has an empty chair, meaning they have a missing member. Either they're dead and the chair was kept as a gesture, or just couldn't take part of that meeting for some reason.
  • Considering that Tony had PTSD-induced nightmares in Iron Man 3, that means that it was really of a Tony who had the same experiences of the Battle of New York as the main Tony. It's possible that this Tony could be one who handled his trauma in a more healthy matter and made an Ultron that worked correctly, but after Thanos was defeated, he decided to retire. His absence from the rest of the group for the scene on Titan could be explained as staying behind on Earth as part of the last line of defense
• Pizza Poppa is forced to hit himself in the face for probably three weeks for essentially being robbed and insulting Strange, but from the public's perspective, he has seen someone wearing the clothes of a dead and well-loved hero, after presumably stealing them from the Dr Strange exhibit and is naturally outraged by it.
  • Even though him supposedly hitting himself for weeks is Played for Laughs, this poor guy could be suffering from injuries and lack of sleep. And that's not to mention how (in real life, at least) if someone claimed that they saw a dead celebrity who cursed them to hit themselves for weeks non-stop, chances are that they'd get institutionalized.
• We have alternate versions of Dr. Strange dying on-screen and off-screen. With them gone, their worlds are at the mercy of evil magical beings that are way too powerful for the other heroes to handle. Makes you wonder how many universes are out there where The Bad Guy Wins.
• In previous movies, the audience saw Wanda's mental health gradually deteriorate as a result of being scapegoated and viewed as a monster and threat while enduring intense trauma. One can only hope that there's someone or some group on Earth-838 that can provide their version of Wanda with the care that she needs after being puppeteered by 616-Wanda and seeing her children threatened, or else they might risk yet another Scarlet Witch coming to power (especially if Earth-838 also has a version of Agatha who wants to see this come to pass...).
  • Does Wanda's "death" at Wundagore release the Sacred-Timeline Agatha from her hex as "Agnes, the nosy neighbor?"
• The thing about Gargantos/Shuma-Gorath in this film is that he can't properly enter other universes outside his own, so he sends little pieces of himself through. Meaning Strange may have made a very powerful enemy.
  • Speaking of Shuma-Gorath, killing him only results in his killer turning into him. The movie ends with Strange spouting a third eye.
• The existence of Incursions, universe-killing calamities born from reckless multiversal travel, puts past Marvel works in a much different and more worrying light:
  • First of all, He Who Remains's backstory. While he states the Multiversal War was born from some of his variants being conquerors, his story seems like every variant, many of whom were stable enough for a period of peace, went "I need to destroy this universe so it doesn't destroy mine". Did the Incursions have anything to do with that?
  • Reed implies that any sort of inter-universal travel risks an Incursion, considering he tells our Stephen, who isn't Dreamwalking, that his presence destabilizes reality. In The Stinger for Morbius (2022), the Vulture has been transported from the MCU to Sony's Spider-Man Universe with no foreseeable way off, where he intends on forming his own super-team. Uh oh...
  • Reed mentions that the risk of an Incursion becomes greater "the larger the footprint you leave behind", implying even after everyone's put back in their proper universes, their actions can still trigger an Incursion. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, the Statue of Liberty was destroyed, Aunt May died, everyone in the world forgot who Peter Parker was, and five villains who were supposed to die as monsters in their universes were cured and sent back so they could survive. Peter 1 sacrificed so much to do the right thing, only to unleash something far, far worse upon the entire universe.
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is implicitly part of the MCU's greater multiverse by way of being confirmed to be an Alternate Universe to Sony's Spider-Man Universe, which in turn is an Alternate Universe to the MCU, as revealed by The Stinger of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. This implies that the consequences of multiversal travel set up by this movie apply to that movie, meaning the Spider-Gang and Kingpin may very well have accidentally triggered an Incursion. And with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse set to introduce even more Spider-People and Earths, the Spider-Gang is possibly unknowingly dooming even more universes.
    • With that said, Reed might have been overstating the dangers of Incursions, understandably so, given what happened and how destructive they can be. Still, given the events of What If...? had various degrees of inter-universal travel and characters changing things, yet the Watcher seemed completely unconcerned with the potential consequences of Incursions, to the point of letting Black Widow from Infinity Ultron's universe stay in the Dead Avengers universe, and as a cosmic being, he'd be aware of the dangers. It's understandable that Reed would be overly cautious about the consequences of an Incursion, but between the Watcher's own nonchalance on the matter and the fact that The Stinger suggests that Incursions can be curtailed and even fixed, his estimation might be a bit off.
• When 838-Christine shows she had 616-Strange's Cloak of Levitation repaired, it now has a new patch. A new blue patch. Earlier on, however, during the flashback to Titan and 838-Strange's execution, the 838-Cloak of Levitation is visible, and is clearly blue. As the Cloak of Levitation is an ancient, magical relic, it's unlikely that ordinary material would suffice to repair it, especially since Christine isn't a sorcerer. Which means she likely used part of the 838-Cloak to repair the 616-Cloak. Remember, though, the Cloak is sentient, so Christine essentially amputated a living thing in order to use part of its body to repair something else.
  • This may be mitigated by the fact that in the flashback on Titan, Reed is seen carrying the Cloak, which seems to be inert. It's possible, though not outright stated, that the 838-Cloak was already damaged or "dead" at that point (hence Reed carrying it instead of it floating under its own power, as it did when initially displayed in the Sanctum). Instead of being a case of amputating a part of a conscious being, the situation might be closer to an organ donation taken from a dead or dying person—still rife with ethical issues, but with a little more ambiguity.
• Fridge Sadness: Sinister Strange's universe is a desolate wasteland of floods and blizzard. One of the first things Sinister Strange mentions is the death of his younger sister Donna. How did she die? She drowned in a frozen lake.
• With Chthon being mentioned by Wong, and the fact that the Scarlet Witch is his chosen one, how many of Wanda's life events has he manipulated to make her become the Scarlet Witch?
• Did Wanda-838 have dreams of the things Wanda-616 did, such as taking over an entire town, and brainwashing them?
• The ground around Sinister Strange's Sanctum is littered with human bones. Did they all flock to the Sanctum to find some safety, only to die to the universe's destruction, or did Sinister Strange kill all of them?
• Wanda by the end of the movie has come very close to paralleling Thanos. Examples include that her having America by the neck, very strongly parallels Thanos's murder of Vision. Two very obvious parallels in their dialogue are when Wanda calls what she did before attacking Kamar-Taj (which was sending demons after America) to be mercy in a way that brings memories of when Thanos called his snap mercy in "Infinity War" because of it being quick and not being personal murder. Also what she says when America says that what Wanda is doing isn't what her children would want is exactly what Thanos said when after he announced his plan to destroy the universe and create a new one, in response to Steve saying it would be born out of blood, "They'll never know."

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