Trivia / Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Tropes A to E

• Acting for Two:
  • Four in Benedict Cumberbatch's case, as he portrays Doctor Strange from the Sacred Timeline, as well as three alternate universe Variants dubbed Sinister Strange, Defender Strange and Supreme Strange.
  • Elizabeth Olsen also portrays Wanda Maximoff from the Sacred Timeline as well as her Earth-838 Variant.
  • Rachel McAdams portrays Christine Palmer from the Sacred Timeline as well as her Earth-838 Variant who works as a scientist for the Illuminati.
• Acting in the Dark:
  • Elizabeth Olsen claimed that despite her character interacting with the Illuminati, she actually never filmed with any of them and had no idea who they were until the movie came out.
  • In a case of directing in the dark: Sam Raimi had not seen WandaVision before helming this film, so he was unaware of Wanda's previous Character Development that led to her becoming the Scarlet Witch in the first place.
• Approval of God: When asked on his Twitter, Scott Derrickson (director of the first Doctor Strange film, and who was also slated to direct this film before bowing out due to Creative Differences) expressed interest and excitement for this film, declaring that Sam Raimi "was the right director for this one, just as The Black Phone was the right film for me to go make".
• Ascended Fancast:
  • John Krasinski as Reed Richards has been a popular fancast for a long period of time, and the movie made it official, albeit as a version from another universe and not as the Reed native to the MCU's main timeline. ^note  Pedro Pascal would eventually be cast as Mr. Fantastic in the MCU's Fantastic Four film.
  • A fairly popular fancast for Clea was Charlize Theron, who does indeed make an appearance in The Stinger.
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • Danny Elfman was very enthusiastic to compose music for the Scarlet Witch in this film, as he found her backstory and motivations to be genuinely heartbreaking and unique.
  • Having thought that he would never play the character again, Anson Mount was beyond overjoyed when he was asked to reprise his role as Black Bolt from Inhumans, and thoroughly appreciated getting to work with Sam Raimi on this film.
• Banned in China: This film was banned in Saudi Arabia for a myriad of reasons, though the biggest factor appears to have been America Chavez having two mothers. It's banned in Egypt and Kuwait as well.
• Billing Displacement: Michael Stuhlbarg receives the "with" billing despite only appearing in a single scene. John Krasinski, Patrick Stewart, Hayley Atwell, Lashana Lynch and Anson Mount all don't get billed in the main credits despite having more significance than him.
  • Chiwetel Ejiofor is billed third, only behind Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen. He barely appears in the film, and exclusively as his 838 variant, as opposed to the version seen in the first film. This bills him before Benedict Wong and Xochitl Gomez, both of whom are main characters and have a major role throughout the entire movie.
• B-Team Sequel:
  • Scott Derrickson was originally slated to direct, returning from the first Doctor Strange film. However, similar to Edgar Wright with Ant-Man, Creative Differences between himself and Marvel Studios, as well as wanting to pursue an opportunity to work on The Black Phone led to Derrickson deciding to bow out of the director's chair. Derrickson is still supportive of the film, and has expressed interest in returning to the MCU sometime in the future.
  • As Sam Raimi's Associated Composer, Danny Elfman takes over music duties from Michael Giacchino, Elfman's first time solo-composing an MCU film (he co-composed Avengers: Age of Ultron with Brian Tyler). He asserted that he would avert Theme Music Abandonment and bring back Giacchino's main theme for the character, though it only appears briefly in the final film. Amusingly, this comes after Giacchino himself revived several of Elfman's themes from the Spider-Man Trilogy for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
• California Doubling: The film was shot at Longcross Studios in London.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Inadvertently. John Krasinski was pretty open about having been one of the unsuccessful auditionees to play Captain America (which became Chris Evans' Star-Making Role). He eventually turns up here as Reed Richards, and he's one of the very popular fan casts at that (for extra irony, Evans himself was in Fantastic Four (2005), though he played Johnny, not Reed).
• Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Japanese dub, Christine Palmer is voiced by the actress and singer Nao Matsushita.
• Content Leak:
  • Prior to Patrick Stewart being confirmed for the film, a piece of concept art featuring Charles Xavier meeting Stephen floated around the Internet for a while.
  • Footage of Wanda meeting the rest of the Illuminati line-up — not counting Professor X, who had already leaked, or Captain Carter and Captain Marvel, who were revealed in the ads — surfaced online a week before the release of the film. Formally revealed here are Anson Mount reprising his role as Black Bolt from the Inhumans show, and John Krasinski as Reed Richards. The latter was a very popular fancast.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Hayley Atwell wasn't a fan of Captain Carter being amongst the Illuminati members who show up only to be killed off shortly after, noting that she wanted to do so much more with the character still. Despite her variant's death here, Atwell has expressed interest in portraying Peggy in a more interesting way in future installments.
  • Patrick Stewart also didn't have a great experience with this film, as he never got to directly interact with anyone while shooting his scenes, leaving him frustrated and disappointed.
• Creative Differences: Scott Derrickson left due to this, saying that he had other ideas for the movie and was unwilling to do what Marvel wanted, moving onto The Black Phone and remaining on Doctor Strange only as an executive producer.
• Disowned Adaptation: America Chavez creator Joe Casey has expressed frustration with a lack of compensation for his work on the character, and flat-out refused an offer Marvel made ahead of this film's release due to seeing it as a "pittance" and a complete insult to him.
• Dueling Works: The film is set to open shortly after the release of Everything Everywhere All at Once, another film about a character meeting several versions of themselves across the multiverse as their realities start to bleed together, though Everything is a genre-blending action dramedy rather than a Superhero Horror adventure.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Benedict Cumberbatch grew out Doctor Strange's goatee for real in this film, rather than merely putting on a fake one as seen in his previous appearances. He also worked out and got in Superhero shape.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Xochitl Gomez screamed for real when the ledge she was standing on broke apart during the Gargantos chase. She admitted to being nervous during the shoot, which helped get a genuine reaction out of her.
  • According to Elizabeth Olsen, Jullian Hillard and Jett Klyne (the child actors playing Wanda's sons Billy and Tommy) accidentally hurt her when they threw the objects at her because they hit her in the face, so her shouting had a lot of genuine anger behind it. They were subsequently genuinely terrified of Wanda's outburst at them.

Tropes I to P

• Inspiration for the Work: Kevin Feige noted that the visual style of the film was heavily based on Sam Raimi's previous work on Evil Dead 2. Michael Waldron also admitted to have been influenced by Aliens, likening Wanda's slaughter of the Illuminati to the Xenomorphs killing the marines in that film.
• Meaningful Release Date: A film where Wanda fights to reunite with her sons fittingly released in May, the month and weekend of Mother's Day.
• Meme Acknowledgement: An interview with Entertainment Weekly has Elizabeth Olsen being aware her fanbase refers to her and Wanda as their "Mom".
  Elizabeth Olsen: I really love being called someone's "mom". You know, that's like a thing I didn't know about, but I'm called that a lot. I would love for someone to teach me the evolution of that phrase.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • Supreme Strange saying "Things just got out of hand". The line does appear, but it’s spoken offscreen by another alternate Doctor Strange — and relayed to us by another character entirely!
  • The shot of the hissing raven in Wanda’s demonic orchard from the teaser trailer never appears in the final movie.
  • The teaser trailer features a Call-Back to Wong's warning about casting the Laser-Guided Amnesia spell from Spider-Man: No Way Home, insinuating it would be directly related to the events of Multiverse of Madness. However, No Way Home only gets a brief nod in the actual film and has no explicit connection to the events involving America Chavez.
• On-Set Injury: Benedict Cumberbatch revealed in an interview that Benedict Wong broke about four ribs when he slammed into something during a stunt.
• The Other Darrin: Luiz Carlos de Moraes voices Charles Xavier (it also counts as a Role Reprise, see below) replacing Leonardo José (who also voiced Thanos in the MCU), the last Brazilian VA who voiced the Patrick Stewart version of the character (in Logan), as Leonardo unfortunately died in November 2021.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends:
  • Quite a few fans were convinced that a variant of Tony Stark played by Tom Cruise had been leaked online, and would appear in the movie proper. Michael Waldron clarified that this absolutely was not the case, though he was intrigued enough by the idea to try to suggest it to Kevin Feige.
  • Another similar rumor is that an appearance by Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool was cut, but Reynolds insists he was never involved with this movie at any point.
  • These two above and a large number of other speculated cameos had some fans think the movie was going to be an Avengers-size event or at least a crossover event akin to Captain America: Civil War with a multiverse spin on it. While there are some Early Bird Cameos that undoubtedly foreshadow some future MCU characters, this was never going to be the case, and the film had more modest ambitions from the get-go.
• Preview Piggybacking: The first teaser for Avatar: The Way of Water has been screened in theaters before this film worldwide.
• Production Posse: Sam Raimi, as ever, has Bruce Campbell make a cameo, while Scott Spiegel, the rooftop pizza thief from Spider-Man 2 and Raimi's co-writer on Evil Dead 2, also cameos as one of the voices of the Souls of the Damned. Additionally, the film is scored by Danny Elfman and edited by Bob Murawski, as the first two of Raimi's Spider-Man films were.
• Promoted Fanboy: While not to the same extent as Spider-Man, Sam Raimi was a fan of the original Doctor Strange comics, and also very much enjoyed the 2016 film upon its release. As such, he was very enthusiastic to direct this film upon getting the job.

Tropes R to W

• Reality Subtext: Wanda bringing up how Strange would talk to her about the events of Westview call to mind how he would have been involved in WandaVision.
• Release Date Change: Another instance of the COVID-19 Pandemic necessitating such changes. Initially slated for May 7, 2021, the film was pushed thrice: first to November 5, 2021, then to March 25, 2022, and finally to May 6, 2022. Shortly before that release date, Marvel Studios parent company Disney took part in an economic boycott of Russia due to the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, resulting in all the studio's films, including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, being delayed in Russia indefinitely.
• Role Reprise:
  • Patrick Stewart returns as Charles Xavier, five years after last playing him in Logan^note Stewart had previously said Logan would be the final time he played the character, though here he's a variant from another universe and not the one from the X-Men Film Series.
  • Ross Marquand (sort of) reprises his role as Ultron from What If...? as the voice of the Illuminati's Ultron security drones.
  • Chiwetel Ejiofor returns as Karl Mordo, six years after last playing him in Doctor Strange, though as a multiversal variant of his Sacred Timeline counterpart.
  • Michael Stuhlbarg returns as Dr. Nicodemus West, six years after last playing him in Doctor Strange.
  • Hayley Atwell reprises her role as Captain Carter, a character who also debuted in What If, albeit in live action this time. That said, she also plays a multiversal variant of the character instead of the counterpart seen in What If…?.
  • Anson Mount returns as Blackagar Boltagon / Black Bolt, having last been seen in the 2017 Inhumans TV show. Though this version of the character is a multiversal variant as well.
  • Ricardo Tejedo, Betzabé Jara and Alicia Barragán all return respectively as Black Bolt, Peggy Carter / Captain Carter and Maria Rambeau in the Latin American dub, though they voice variants of them. In Jara's case, she reprises her Captain Carter role from What If...?.
  • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, Luiz Carlos de Moraes reprises his role as Professor Charles Xavier, from X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine.
  • In the Japanese dub, Mugihito reprises his role as Charles Xavier from the dubs of the X-Men Film Series, through this is justified here, as he is the regular Japanese dub voice of Patrick Stewart.
  • In the European French dub, Charles Xavier is voiced by Pierre Dourlens, reprising his role from the X-Men Film Series.
  • In the Canadian French dub, Jacques Lavallée is the voice of Charles Xavier, reprising his role from Logan.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The one-eyed tentacle-monster that appears at the beginning of the film is an adaptation of Shuma-Gorath, but is called Gargantos — which in the comics is actually the name of a Sub-Mariner foe. This is because the name Shuma-Gorath originated from one of Robert E. Howard's Kull stories, meaning Marvel cannot use the name outside of the comics without infringing copyright from that book. According to an article by CBR, Marvel Studios didn't even ask Heroic Signatures — the owner of the Kull and Conan franchise — if they could license Shuma-Gorath's name. With the release of the film, it actually seems this was deliberate in order to divert attention away from the twist that Wanda is the Big Bad.
• Sequel Gap: This film was released five and a half years after Strange's first solo film, which is especially surprising since every prior sub-series in the MCU (namely Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Avengers, Guardians of Galaxy, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man) didn't have as wide a gap between releases^note For reference, the prior longest gap between installments was four years between Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok. as the good doctor did. Though it helps in this case that Strange has made various appearances and cameos with increasing importance throughout the MCU since his debut film. It's also understandable given the delays caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• Sequel in Another Medium: This movie follows up on plot threads that started in the television show WandaVision, in addition to The Multiverse itself having started in Loki and being fleshed out in What If...?. Added to that, What If...? is an animated series while this is a live-action film, and the main link to it comes from another variant of Peggy Carter who also became Captain Carter.
• Shrug of God: When asked if John Krasinski would also be playing Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four reboot, Michael Waldron simply deflected the question by saying he didn't know. It would later be confirmed that Pedro Pascal would be playing him instead of Krasinski.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Part of the reason why Charlize Theron took on the role of Clea in The Stinger (and, by extension, the MCU on the whole) was because she had wanted to take part in a project for her children, who were too young to watch most of her previous works.
• Throw It In!:
  • The moment when Wanda glances at the camera during her first dreamwalk was not part of the original script. Sam Raimi had Elizabeth Olsen do it on the last take just as an experiment, and it ended up in the final cut.
  • The scene where Earth-838 Tommy (Jett Klyne) and Billy (Julian Hilliard) are throwing stuff at Sacred Timeline Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen). When Jett and Julian accidentally hurt Olsen with an object, Olsen angrily yelling, "STOP IT!" was completely genuine, as was the boys' terrified/guilty reactions. Olsen immediately felt bad for scaring them and apologized to the boys after the scene, which all ended up on the final cut because it established how corrupted Wanda has become.
• Troubled Production:
  • Filming was supposed to begin in May 2020 but was delayed until November by the COVID-19 Pandemic. A surge in COVID cases meant production had to be temporarily suspended in early 2021. Benedict Cumberbatch also had to take a short break from filming after a suspected exposure to the virus. The crew eventually had to schedule an extra six weeks of filming during the post production stage. While reshoots and pickups are a regular part of making a franchise film (two weeks is about the standard), the producers and Cumberbatch have confirmed that this extra filming was also needed to film scenes they couldn't complete during principal photography due to COVID.
  • According to an AV Club article, Sam Raimi and screenwriter Michael Waldron essentially had to play catch-up after the previous director Scott Derrickson left and the horror-oriented script he developed with Jade Halley-Bartlett was discarded. The two had to meet deadlines and fast, with Waldron racing to finish and deliver the script on schedule. Raimi noted during an interview that sometimes, the script would change minutes before shooting.
  • One particular change due to COVID was how the orchard scene was supposed to take advantage of being filmed with apple trees in bloom. The delays forced the scenes to be filmed during the winter, requiring over 500 pounds of wire flowers to be attached to the trees.
  • Xochitl Gomez would later revealed that Marvel had requested Michael Waldron to rewrite the film's script at least 33 times.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ari Aster, Mike Flanagan and Jennifer Kent were in the running to direct the movie after Derrickson left, before Sam Raimi was hired. Kent was previously considered to helm Captain Marvel before Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck were hired.
  • Following Scott Derrickson's departure as director, Rachel McAdams initially revealed that she would not reprise her role as Christine Palmer from the first Doctor Strange film. When the film's main cast and director were officially announced at Disney's 2020 Investor Event, it was confirmed that McAdams would indeed return for the film.
  • Sam Raimi initially didn't want to direct any future superhero films, having lost faith in himself due to the critical and audience backlash he received from Spider-Man 3, in turn thanks to the Executive Meddling on that film. However, getting the call from his agent about this film encouraged him to try again, as he had thoroughly enjoyed the first Doctor Strange film (as well as the character himself) and wanted see if he could live up to the challenge of meeting the audience's expectations once again.
  • This movie was originally meant to be before Spider-Man: No Way Home before the COVID-19 Pandemic forced the schedules to be altered and for this movie to ultimately come after it. Spider-Man himself was also going to briefly cameo in this film before the changes occured. It begs the massive question of what would've happened had this movie indeed been before No Way Home (with some of No Way Home's production art suggesting America Chavez would have played a role in that film, but was removed due to having not been introduced yet).
  • Balder the Brave was originally set to be included as part of the Illuminati, with his role being so close to being included that the costume designers began early work on making a costume. The character was replaced with Black Bolt and Mister Fantastic instead. Daniel Craig was supposed to play the character, but backed out due to concern regarding COVID.
  • In addition, several otherwise-accurate plot leaks resolve the fate of Earth-616 Mordo, albeit via Back for the Dead: in the film's introductory scene, he tracks down Wanda as part of his mission to strip sorcerers of their powers, only for Wanda to decapitate him, thus establishing her newfound villainy. As this scene is no longer included in the film, his current fate is unknown.
  • After reading the rumors of Tom Cruise portraying a Tony Stark variant, Michael Waldron did actually try to get that idea into the movie. Unfortunately, Kevin Feige informed him that this would be basically impossible, due to Cruise's commitment to shooting the seventh and eighth Mission Impossible films. Cruise himself noted in an interview that he had little interest in playing any version of Iron Man, as he felt he could never measure up to Robert Downey Jr.'s performance.
  • Namor was originally going to be part of the Illuminati to reflect how the group was portrayed in the source material, but his inclusion was scrapped because Ryan Coogler had requested Marvel Studios to not allow anyone else to use the character before his appearance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
  • There were talks about the possibility of including a cameo of Deadpool, but the filmmakers ultimately felt like that the movie wasn't ideal to introduce Deadpool to the MCU. Judging by comments made by Ryan Reynolds, it seems this idea never made it far enough to where Marvel got in touch with him about doing this. Deadpool's arrival in the MCU would come with his third film instead, Deadpool & Wolverine.
  • Rintrah, the green minotaur student at Kamar Taj, had a bigger role initially (he even got his own Funko Pop! figure). His scenes were largely left on the cutting room floor and he ended up a background character.
  • Concept art shows that Wong was going to have an Earth-838 variant that would've accompanied 616 Strange and America Chavez explore his universe. In the final film, no variants of Wong appear.
  • At some point, there were plans for Wanda to face off against a variant of the Wasp, who would've been killed by getting squashed between the former's hands.
  • Early drafts had Wanda becoming evil by the end, with Nightmare serving as the Big Bad before that point. Writer Michael Waldron eventually decided that such a threat as the Scarlet Witch had to be a villainess from the get-go.
  • According to Michael Waldron in the audio commentary, this film originally had a much darker ending. Rather than returning to his home universe to defeat Wanda and save America, Strange was initially going to remain trapped in Sinister Strange's universe while Sinister Strange himself manages travel to the Sacred Timeline, which would've been revealed at the very end of the film with all three eyes of his eyes turning to the camera à la the end of the music video for Thriller, complete with the Vincent Price laugh.
  • Early in the planning stages, Wanda was originally going to follow Strange and America through other dimensions, with her unleashing more of her power through the Darkhold as they made jump after jump. Strange would've also fought off various demons as they moved between dimensions.
  • Michael Waldron's first draft of the script (before the character was included as part of the Illuminati) included a Stinger featuring an Early-Bird Cameo from Mr. Fantastic. According to Waldron, the scene would've shown an unidentified figure reviewing footage of the events of the movie before reaching a stretchy hand out to run the recording back.
  • Early concept art and a draft script shows that 616 Doctor Strange would've encountered a variant of himself named Melvin, who would've been a street magician with no actual mystical abilities. This "Marvellous Melvyn" character got shafted sometime after Scott Derrickson was replaced by Sam Raimi.
  • Stunt coordinator Liang Yang filmed a fight rehearsal depicting a much Bloodier and Gorier battle between the Scarlet Witch and the warriors of Kamar-Taj. It has Wanda impaling her foes, beheading them, using a headless sorcerer’s corpse as a puppet, and one poor soul even gets their body mangled before exploding into Ludicrous Gibs. It’s safe to assume that it was deemed too violent and bloody to be put in the film.
  • Concept art shows that Captain Carter was originally going to survive a bit longer before being taken down by Wanda; namely she would've helped Strange find the Book of Vishanti before attempting to hold off Wanda further.
  • Concept art shows that there were plans to bring back Iron Monger as a member of the Illuminati at one point.
  • An early draft of the script would've had Strange, Wong, 616 Mordo and Wanda actually explore an Incursion Universe that would've been filled with the corpses of Strange variants. Wanda was also meant to be an ally rather than an antagonist in this draft.
  • Kevin Feige wanted to remove Strange and America's first encounter with Baron Mordor on Earth-838 because he found the scene to be corny. Sam Raimi refused to do it however and Feige eventually backed down.
• Word of Gay: Kevin Feige confirmed that America Chavez is a lesbian like in the comics, but the decision was made to only allude to this aspect of her character due to Xochitl Gomez — and by extension the MCU America Chavez herself — only being 14 during filming.
• Word of God:
  • According to Sam Raimi in the director's commentary, Defender Strange is from Earth-617.^note As with "Earth-616", the Earth-617 designation was already taken by the comics and has a completely different Doctor Strange to the one shown in the film.
  • Michael Waldron mentioned in an interview that Strange's third eye manifesting at the end of the film is supposed to reflect 616 Mordo's words about the bill coming due.
  • According to producer Richie Palmer, the Avengers of Earth-838 became defunct after Tony Stark successfully created the Ultron Sentries, which led to the Illuminati rising in its place when 838 Thanos made his presence known.
• Word of Saint Paul:
  • According to Elizabeth Olsen, Wanda 838 possessed by her version of 616 was much weaker than Wanda 616 in her original body, which justifies Peggy Carter being able to put up a fight.
  • Olsen also mentioned that the reason 838 Vision is not seen with his family here is because he and Wanda got divorced, since 838 Wanda isn't wearing a wedding ring.
  • Bruce Campbell stated in a 2023 interview that his cameo in this film and cameos in the Spider-Man Trilogy are all the same character, though he didn't specify whether Pizza Poppa is an alternate counterpart of his character in the trilogy or if he's the same character somehow transported to Earth-838.
• Working Title: "Stellar Vortex".
• Writer Conflicts with Canon: The MCU has previously been referred to by the comics — which treat the various movie, video-game, cartoon, etc. adaptations and spin-offs as alternate universes in an infinite Multiverse, each with its own unique designation — as "Earth-199999" based on a comment made by Kevin Feige. In the years since, Feige has gone out of his way to call the MCU "Earth-616" — which in the comics is the mainstream universe — and try to distance the MCU's take on the multiverse from that shown in the comics... which still treats the MCU as part of its own multiverse.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Sam Raimi has observed that due the chaotic production process, he and the screenwriters essentially figured out the movie during filming, with the ending being conceptualized about halfway through the shoot. This is corroborated by Benedict Cumberbatch saying in an interview "The only thing that didn't change was the title of this film." Elizabeth Olsen agrees.

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