Marvel Studios Is Officially Fixing Doctor Strange 2

Marvel Studios is fixing the Multiverse problem that Doctor Strange 2 never solved. When Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrived in 2022, director Sam Raimi's sequel promised audiences a wild tour of alternate realities. Instead, it parked its story on a single alternate Earth for most of its runtime and reduced its biggest crossover stars to a brief appearance. The dangers of the Multiverse stayed theoretical, explained in dialogue and rarely felt on screen.

The good news is, Avengers: Doomsday is fixing the more riveting aspects of the Multiverse we never got to see. The private trailer Marvel Studios screened at CinemaCon in April, combined with the film's synopsis and comments from its creative team, points to a Multiverse story that succeeds where Doctor Strange 2 stumbled. The crossover epic, which arrives in theaters on December 18, unites the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men against Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom, and every new detail suggests the Multiverse will finally function as more than a background element.

Avengers: Doomsday Will Feature More Multiversal Hero Crossovers

One promising aspect of Doctor Strange 2 that painfully disappointed was the involvement of the Illuminati. Patrick Stewart's Professor X, John Krasinski's Mister Fantastic, and the rest of the Earth-838 council appeared in one extended sequence before the Scarlet Witch slaughtered them. Their deaths existed to prove Wanda's power, and none of them influenced the story as much as they could have. Fans had finally got a live-action Reed Richards they loved, only to watch him die within minutes.

Doomsday takes the opposite approach. The synopsis confirms that heroes from "three distinct universes" will be set on a "deadly collision course." The Fantastic Four travel from the retro-futuristic world of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, designated Earth-828, while the X-Men come from the universe of 20th Century Fox's movies. Neither team is a guest in someone else's story; the conflict belongs to them as much as it belongs to the Avengers.

The CinemaCon trailer showed how deeply those teams factor into the action. The Direct was at the event, and we witnessed Gambit trade blows with Shang-Chi inside the X-Mansion. Another scene also showed Mystique shapeshifting into Yelena Belova and forcing Florence Pugh's Avenger to fight her own double.

James Marsden's Cyclops blasted through a door of the disheveled mansion with an optic blast. Excitingly, the footage also shows the Fantastic Four at the building, with Reed stretching to restrain Sam Wilson. What we saw in Doctor Strange 2 pales in comparison to this kind of Multiversal collision.

The different realities that factor into this film also look distinct visually. Where Multiverse of Madness presented Earth-838 as a New York with reversed traffic lights and a shinier skyline, Doomsday's realities each look and feel like different films. Earth-828 has a 1960s retro-futurism. The Fox X-Men world arrives with two decades of established movie history behind it.

Incursions Will Be Explored Much Deeper

In Doctor Strange 2, Incursions felt like homework. Earth-838's Reed Richards explained the concept in a short scene, and the only proper Incursion shown on screen was Sinister Strange's crumbling universe, which served as scenery for the third act. 

Doomsday will give the concept more attention. The film's full trailer shows glimpses of worlds colliding, as the entire sky is visibly bathed in red. In the post-credits scene of Multiverse of Madness, Clea arrives to whisk Doctor Strange away to fix an incursion he caused. 

While the scene teases the onset of this catastrophic event, it lacks the epic, world-ending proportions of Doomsday. The comic book source material the film adapts depicts Incursions just as it’s shown in the trailer.

In the footage, Doom even says, "Something's coming, something we may not be able to deter. Before this day is done, we shall be faced with an unthinkable decision." With realities colliding, the Latverian’s comments allude to a grim choice: the heroes and he must decide which reality survives and which perishes. This is a tough choice, which is likely the foundation for the conflict seen in the trailer. 

While we didn't see Doctor Strange face the on-screen consequences of his Incursion, Avengers: Doomsday will have the heroes suffer from the effects of one. In fact, Marvel’s fourth Doomsday teaser released earlier this year already reveals the fallout of an Incursion, showing Namor's underwater kingdom of Talokan completely dried up and leaving his people in grave danger

Doomsday Will Have a More Intriguing MacGuffin 

America Chavez was the MacGuffin of Doctor Strange 2. She functioned as a mode of transportation through her star-shaped portals. This made Wanda target her, as the Scarlet Witch could use her to access the Multiverse. While America was a fantastic addition to the film and Xochitl Gomez delivered a phenomenal performance, the character wasn’t utilized to her full potential. By contrast, Avengers: Doomsday is poised to feature a more powerful and intriguing MacGuffin who could have an immense impact on the Multiverse.

That MacGuffin is Franklin Richards. The Fantastic Four: First Steps established the infant as one of the most powerful beings in the MCU. Galactus himself confirmed the child's cosmic potential, and Franklin revived his mother, Sue Storm, after she died in the battle against the devourer of worlds. 

The film's post-credits scene then showed Doom kneeling before the boy with his mask in hand. Comic readers understand why Franklin might be important to Doom. Franklin created an entire pocket universe during the Heroes Reborn era and helped rebuild the Multiverse itself after 2015's Secret Wars. Doom likely wants Franklin's powers for his agenda against the Multiverse in Doomsday, and if he gets it, there might be no stopping him.

This gives the Fantastic Four a personal reason to fight Doom, making Franklin a more intriguing and powerful MacGuffin. Chavez's power moved people between universes, whereas Franklin's power can decide whether universes exist at all.