Doctor Strange 2’s trailer seems to tease that the Multiverse of Madness will have significant ties to the animated series What If…? The teaser, which was first shown at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home’s credits, shows the master of the mystic arts dealing with what seems to be the collapse of the multiverse.
We see the tentacled terror Shuma Gorath, the return of the Scarlet Witch, and the extradimensional hero America Chavez. These things pale in comparison to the final reveal, though, where Mordo tells Strange that “the greatest threat to the universe, is you” before revealing what appears to be an evil version of Doctore Strange.
Fans have convinced themselves that this is in fact Strange Supreme. First introduced in the fourth episode of What If…? Strange Supreme is a variant of the good doctor who’s from a universe where Christine Palmer was killed in the accident that cost our Stephen his hands. While originally good, the temptation to use his powers to save Christine was too strong for this version of Strange, and he tried to use the Time Stone to save her life.
Unfortunately, Christine’s death was a fixed point in time and try as he might, nothing could save her. Desperate and slightly deranged after seeing Christine die time and time again, Strange came to believe he could break the rules of reality by becoming more powerful. To that end, he began to absorb other mystical entities to power himself up.
Eventually, Strange became so powerful he was able to rewrite time, but it soon became apparent why this was a bad idea as all of reality collapsed in on itself. In the end, Strange Supreme was left alone in the void of what was once his universe.
We’ve no official confirmation that the dark version of Sorceror Supreme we see in the trailer is Strange Supreme but there are some hints that the two are one and the same. During the opening of the Multiverse of Madness trailer, we see New York City coming undone. The effect used looks very similar to the way Strange Supreme’s reality collapsed in on itself.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is part of Marvel Phase 4. You can watch all of What If…? on Disney Plus now.