--- description: The latest Marvel movie further complicates the MCU and takes audiences to new universes with some familiar-seeming characters. title: What 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' Can Tell Us About the Future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt247cbc0fe425056c/698a319d929fada048bf8918/ANY7020_TRL_comp_v002.1008.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # What _Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness_ Can Tell Us About the Future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by [James Grebey](/author/james-grebey/) ## James Grebey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Grebey is a contributor for TIME. May 6, 2022 3:01 PM CUT  Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff in Marvel Studios' DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff in Marvel Studios' DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS.Courtesy of Marvel Studios by [James Grebey](/author/james-grebey/) ## James Grebey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Grebey is a contributor for TIME. May 6, 2022 3:01 PM CUT **_Warning: Major spoilers ahead for_** **Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness** At this point, the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” is a misnomer. Recent films, like [_Spider-Man: No Way Home_](https://time.com/6128276/spider-man-no-way-home-future/ "undefined") and the just-released [_Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness_](https://time.com/6172935/doctor-strange-multiverse-madness-review/ "undefined"), have thrown their characters—and the franchise—into a vast and complex multiverse, as have [TV shows like _Loki_ on Disney](https://time.com/6080431/loki-finale-explained-mcu/ "undefined")+. It’s a lot to keep track of, especially since this all started with a simple movie about one guy building an iron suit. The latest Marvel movie, _Multiverse of Madness,_ further complicates the MCU and takes audiences to new universes with some familiar-seeming characters. Here’s a brief guide to the MCU multiverse, and where it stands to go next. ## **Wait, what is a multiverse?** Multiverses—alternate worlds that may be identical, subtly altered, or radically different than the ones our heroes normally operate in—have been a part of superhero comics for decades, arguably going back to a 1961 issue of DC Comics’ _The Flash,_ where two different versions of the speedster crossed paths. The narrative device soon became popular, and why wouldn’t it? Multiple worlds gave comic writers a near-infinite canvas to play “what if?” and Marvel Comics did just that with its similarly titled _What If…?_ Comics and, more recently, Disney+ show. Multiverses mean time travel is possible, there can be duplicates of characters, there can be alternate versions of characters, and you can explain just about anything by attributing it to an infinite number of parallel worlds. However, the MCU didn’t start out as a multiverse. With the exception of the _Thor_ movies’ talk of “realms,” which are more akin to mythically connected regions of the cosmos than parallel worlds, the first several films of the MCU take place on Earth or, occasionally, in space. It wasn’t until the first Doctor Strange movie that the Ancient One (played by Tilda Swinton) explicitly mentioned the existence of other universes.  A scene from Marvel Studios' DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios However, the [multiverse](https://time.com/6169255/cinematic-multiverse-list/ "undefined") the Ancient One was talking about isn’t quite the multiverse that MCU fans commonly understand these days. _Doctor Strange_ introduced the Astral Plane, Mirror Dimension, and Dark Dimension, but in practice, they seem to be aspects of the main Marvel Universe rather than their own entities, though this is debatable. An episode of the Disney+ _What If…?_ show featured an alternate version of Doctor Strange who seemed to have visited his own reality’s version of the Dark Dimension, for instance. Other movies and shows added new “dimensions” to the MCU, including The Ancestral Plane (_Black Panther_), the Quantum Realm (_Ant-Man_), Soulworld (_Infinity War_), Ta Lo (_Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings_), and the Duat _(Moon Knight_). All of these are unique places that seem to exist in tandem with the main reality of the MCU, though it’s somewhat hard to say, as terms like dimension, world, plane, reality, and universe are all used somewhat interchangeably with little concrete explanation of what they actually are in the grander scale. Regardless of how multiverserally unique these realities are, they are not what fans are talking about when they talk about the multiverse. That involves timelines, warped versions of the universe we know, and the possibility of bringing other movies and characters into the MCU’s fold. **Read More**: [_Breaking Down Every Significant Character Who Appears in_ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness](https://time.com/6174199/doctor-strange-2-characters/ "undefined") ## **Which Marvel films and shows do I need to watch to understand the multiverse?** While a trip to the Dark Dimension is neat, it doesn’t generate the same excitement as seeing a same-but-different version of a familiar character. For that, the MCU turned to time travel—at least at first. In _Avengers: Endgame_, the heroes use the [Quantum Realm](https://time.com/5576656/avengers-endgame-time-travel/ "undefined") to travel through time, and a past version of the Ancient One explains that time travel creates branching realities. These realities are, functionally, alternate universes.  Tom Hiddleston and Sophia Di Martino in Loki Chuck Zlotnick—Marvel Studios However, the _Loki_ TV show went a step further with the [Time Variance Authority and the reveal of He Who Remains](https://time.com/6080568/loki-villain-kang-the-conqueror/ "undefined"). Viewers learned that there are an infinite number of parallel universes and timelines. Most of them are more or less the same as the main MCU timeline, but there are variations. In one universe, for instance, Loki is a woman. In another, he killed Thor. In yet another, he’s an alligator. The TVA monitors all these various universes to protect the “Sacred Timeline”—in reality pruning branches that would lead to a multiversal war that would screw up the entire timeline. Loki uses parallel universes to tell a twisty story, but _Spider-Man: Far From Home_ used the multiverse for other purposes: To maximize Intellectual Property. That movie had Peter Parker (Tom Holland) turn to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for a spell that would alter memories (and reality) by harnessing the power of the multiverse. Peter’s edits and Strange’s hastiness led to a botched version of that spell that brought characters from other universes to the main MCU universe. The Spider-Men from the two Sony Spider-Man movie series, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, as well as five villains from the five old movies—movies that, before this, were not at all connected to the MCU. (Tom Hardy’s Venom was also pulled into the MCU, but only for a [funny post-credits cameo](https://time.com/6129030/spider-man-no-way-home-end-credits-scenes/ "undefined"). [_Morbius’_ post-credits scene](https://time.com/6163101/morbius-spider-man-end-credits-mcu/ "undefined") pulled _Spider-Man: Homecoming_’s villain, Michael Keaton’s Vulture, into whatever cinematic universe Sony’s building.)  (l-r) Tom Holland and Benedict Cumberbatch in Spider-Man: No Way Home Matt Kennedy—Marvel Studios By establishing that the Sony Spider-Man movies were universes that existed as part of the MCU’s multiverse, _No Way Home_ retroactively made them MCU canon—that is to say, part of the official storyline. They are _not,_ however, part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s main universe. It was a game-changer for fans’ understanding of what a multiverse implied. Now, a multiverse wasn’t just a plot-specific alternate realm, like _Doctor Strange_’s Dark Dimension, nor was it a funhouse mirror timeline, like _Loki_’s parallel realities. Now, the multiverse was a chance to make _anything_ canon in the MCU. _Multiverse of Madness_, which was[ teasing the appearance of Patrick Stewart’s Professor X](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/professor-x-mcu-doctor-strange-2-marvel-x-men-97 "undefined") from the X-Men movies and characters from the _What If…?_ show, seemed poised to further expand the multiverse and bring more old faces into the MCU fold. However, it subverts almost all of those expectations by making those highly anticipated characters into more of a prank than building blocks for the franchise’s future ## **So, what does** **_Doctor Strange 2_** **mean for the multiverse?** Multiverse of Madness does not introduce the X-Men to the MCU, and it’s not a “sequel” to _What If…?_, as many suspected. Instead, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), who has the ability to travel the multiverse at will (though she can’t control her powers at first) sends Doctor Strange and herself to another universe that has quite a few differences from the main MCU. That universe’s version of Christine Palmer explains that this universe is Universe 838 and the MCU we’re familiar with is Universe 616\. (Incidentally, Mysterio called the MCU 616 in _Spider-Man: Far From Home_, but since he was lying about being from another universe and had no real knowledge of the multiverse, chalk the coincidence up to an Easter egg, as the main Marvel comics continuity is also deemed 616.) In Universe 838, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes formed a team called the Illuminati, not the Avengers, and their roster is different from the group we’re used to. There’s a Captain Marvel, but apparently in this universe Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) got the powers instead of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson); a Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell), but seemingly a different version of the character than the one in the _What If…?_ show; a Professor X (Stewart) who seems to take more after the ‘90s X-Men cartoon than the Fox movies; a Black Bolt who probably isn’t the same as the one from the maligned and forgotten _Inhumans_ show, despite being played by Anson Mount; and Mr. Fantastic (John Krasinski) of the Fantastic Four, Marvel’s first family who have yet to make their proper debut. All of them are brutally and hilariously killed by Scarlet Witch. **Read More**: [Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness _Is Extravagant, Messy, and Over-the-Top Crazy_](https://time.com/6172935/doctor-strange-multiverse-madness-review/ "undefined") So, while the X-Men appear to exist in the MCU’s multiverse, there’s no confirmation that the X-Men of the Fox movies exist (Stewart reprising his role is more of a casting gag the way _WandaVision_’s casting of Evan Peters as “Fake Pietro” was), and the X-Men certainly don’t exist in the main 616 universe yet. Mutants are out there, somewhere, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Just not _this_ universe. And, it sure doesn’t seem that any of the Illuminati are going to be major players in the future of the MCU because, well, they’re all dead. ## **What can** **_Doctor Strange 2_** **tell us about the future of the multiverse in the MCU?** _Multiverse of Madness_ doesn’t actually expand the multiverse as much as _No Way Home_ did, and for all the cameos the various universes introduced, they don’t really impact the main MCU continuity at all. However, it does reveal some new information about how the multiverse functions. We learn that dreams are actually visions of something that’s happening in another universe, as seen in Wanda’s dreams of a reality where her two children in _WandaVision_ were actually real. More importantly, _Multiverse of Madness_ introduced the concept of incursions—disastrous, potentially mutually universe-destroying events that can happen when two universes cross streams. (In retrospect, what happened at the end of _No Way Home_ may have been an incursion.) Incursions, taken from comics writer Jonathan Hickman’s incredible _Avengers_ run in the mid ‘10s, are seemingly going to be a problem in the MCU going forward. The post-credits scene where Clea (Charlize Theron) appeared to enlist Strange’s help in fixing an incursion, suggests the hero’s next adventure will involve multiversal incursions. **Read More**: [_Let’s Talk About the_ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness _End-Credits Scenes_](https://time.com/6174104/doctor-strange-2-end-credits/ "undefined") We might need to wait a while to see what’s next for the MCU’s multiverse. The next Marvel films on the schedule for this year, _Thor: Love and Thunder_ and _Wakanda Forever_, seem likely to take place primarily in just the 616 universe. It won’t be too long until heroes are popping between dimensions again, as _Ant-Man: Quantumania_ will almost certainly explore the multiverse, and there’s a second season of _Loki_ and another _Doctor Strange_ adventure in the cards as well. Given that, it’s hard to predict exactly what will happen next, from a storytelling perspective. The biggest and most immediate change _Multiverse of Madness_ made to the MCU’s multiverse is that it, somewhat unexpectedly, lowered the stakes. The multiverse in this movie was more of a fun storytelling tool rather than a worldbuilding mechanism, which opens up the possibility that future trips to the multiverse can be goofy rather than load-bearing.  Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange in DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Marvel Studios Trying to keep all of the various universes and dimensions in the MCU is, as the Doctor Strange sequel’s title suggests, maddening. Looking at the arc of the multiverse’s film history, you can see it grow more complicated and possibly contradictory. That’s OK, as long as the filmmakers and the viewers have some sort of handle on the rules and the stakes as they pertain to the specific story that’s being told. After that, it can get kind of messy, as any longtime comics reader will tell you. The important thing to do then is to relish in it and have fun, just as _Multiverse_ director Sam Raimi surely did. You can’t introduce a universe’s worth of hyped-up heroes and then kill them off for laughs unless you’re having a ball playing in the multiverse. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6174219/doctor-strange-2-mcu-future/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6174219/doctor-strange-2-mcu-future/"},"headline":"What Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Can Tell Us About the Future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe","datePublished":"2022-05-06T15:01:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:54:16.581Z","description":"Here’s a brief guide to the MCU multiverse, and where it stands to go next.","url":"https://time.com/6174219/doctor-strange-2-mcu-future/","keywords":["movies","freelance","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt247cbc0fe425056c/698a319d929fada048bf8918/ANY7020_TRL_comp_v002.1008.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"James Grebey","jobTitle":"Grebey is a contributor for TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/james-grebey/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt247cbc0fe425056c/698a319d929fada048bf8918/ANY7020_TRL_comp_v002.1008.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS","caption":"DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS","creditText":"Courtesy of Marvel Studios","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6174219/doctor-strange-2-mcu-future/","name":"What Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Can Tell Us About the Future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe"}}]}] ```