In the Marvel Universe, those words are as ominous as DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths (opens in new tab) and its spin-offs. The words ‘Secret Wars’ denote a series of events in which Marvel’s reality has been rewritten and remade, and many Marvel characters have had their own stories drastically altered along the way. And now, a Secret Wars event in the Marvel Cinematic Universe may be inevitable, if a less-than-subtle line in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is anything to go by.

In both the original 1985 Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars (opens in new tab) and its 2015 Secret Wars (opens in new tab) spiritual sequel, extra-Multiversal beings set about to monkey around with the very fabric of Marvel’s reality, destroying and creating whole worlds in the process.

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The MCU is diving headlong into its own Multiverse with the burgeoning presence of Kang the Conqueror as a Multiverse-spanning villain, and Kang’s many ‘Variants,’ as well as the current What If…? MCU animated series, which explores alternate worlds. All that, combined with the new MCU lore that Doctor Strange of Earth-838 caused an ‘Incursion’ – combining two worlds and destroying both – is plenty of evidence to suggest a cinematic version of Secret Wars. 

Plus, we know the story is on the minds of at least some Marvel Studios filmmakers, with Avengers: Infinity War (opens in new tab) and Avengers: Endgame (opens in new tab) directors Joe and Anthony Russo namedropping Secret Wars as a story they could hypothetically be enticed to return to Marvel Studios to create.

“I read [Secret Wars] when I was 10 or 11, and it was the scale of getting all of the heroes together,” Joe Russo said in a 2020 interview. “It was one of the first major books to do that – that was really event-storytelling to me at its finest. And what happens when you put all of those personalities together…To execute something on the scale of Infinity War was directly related to the dream of Secret Wars, which is even larger in scale.”

But if Secret Wars was adapted to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, what effect could that have on the MCU going forward? We’re digging into the legacy of Secret Wars – both the 1985 original and the 2015 spiritual sequel – as well as the stories’ effects on the Marvel Universe at large to gain some insight into what it could mean if Secret Wars were brought to the MCU.

Secret Wars (1985)

The original Marvel Super-Heroes: Secret Wars limited series ran from 1985-86, and is considered the first official Marvel crossover event title. Written by then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter with art from Mike Zeck and Bob Layton, Secret Wars was created in conjunction with toy manufacturer Mattel as part of a plan to create a toy line of Marvel heroes alongside a comic book that would simultaneously promote the concept in the mainstream Marvel Universe.

To match the concept, Shooter developed a story in which Marvel’s most popular heroes and villains are transported to another world to be pitted against each other in combat for the entertainment of a mysterious, all-powerful villain known as the Beyonder.

The Beyonder was an omniscient, nigh-omnipotent cosmic being, later revealed to be just one of a whole race of Beyonders, who became fascinated with the heroes and villains of Earth and their conflicts. Summoning members of the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and their foes – most importantly Doctor Doom and Molecule Man – the Beyonder creates a warzone known as Battleworld out of pieces of different parts of Earth and other planets. Setting both factions against each other, the Beyonder promises the winners that he’ll grant their hearts’ desires with his wish-like powers.

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Throughout the 12-issue story, the Beyonder engineers conflicts between the heroes and villains designed to test not just their mettle, but their sensibilities and morality. Through it all, as the heroes attempt to band together and overcome the villains, Doctor Doom makes plans of his own to overthrow the Beyonder and steal his power, manipulating and commanding his evil cohort into following his schemes. 

Central to Doom’s plans is Molecule Man, a particularly unique being who acts as a kind of key to every world in the Marvel Multiverse, and who initially gained his reality-bending powers from the Beyonders (though this wasn’t yet revealed at the time of the original Secret Wars). Doom plans to use Molecule Man as a battery for a machine to steal the power of the Beyonder, which he then plans to use to conquer the Earth.

In the end, the heroes are able to defeat both the Beyonder and Doctor Doom when Molecule Man turns coat and breaks free of Doom’s manipulations. Despite their victory, many of the heroes undergo significant status quo changes as a result of the story.

Most famously, Spider-Man receives a new, all-black costume that turns out to be a living alien symbiote, which tries taking over Peter Parker’s mind before bonding with Peter’s rival Eddie Brock to become the villainous Venom (who has had some major shifts himself over the years).

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Additionally, Secret Wars led to Ben Grimm not only being able to revert to his human form for a time but also exiting the Fantastic Four to remain on Battleworld, while She-Hulk quits the Avengers to take his place on the FF. 

Several new characters are introduced in the story, including She-Hulk’s archenemy Titania; Molecule Man’s wife Volcana; and Julia Carpenter, the second Spider-Woman. And in a few more changes, the X-Men Colossus and Kitty Pryde end their romantic relationship, while the Hulk becomes increasingly savage due to injuries suffered on Battleworld.

A few years later, a sequel titled Secret Wars II (opens in new tab) brought the Beyonder to Earth, reprising some of the themes of the original limited series but without the impact the original had on both readers and the Marvel Universe.

The legacy of the original Secret Wars wouldn’t come back into the Marvel Universe till decades later.

Secret Wars (2015)

In 2015, to mark the 30th anniversary of the conclusion of the original Secret Wars, Marvel launched a new event that served as a true spiritual sequel to the original, while also doing something Marvel had never done before: destroying and rewriting its entire Multiverse, including making some changes to continuity.

In the year leading up to Secret Wars, writer Jonathan Hickman (current head X-Men writer, at least through his upcoming Inferno title) used the titles Fantastic Four, Avengers, and New Avengers to establish a multiversal threat in which different realities were colliding, destroying each other, and shrinking the Multiverse in the process. 

The story, ‘Time Runs Out (opens in new tab),’ led directly to 2015’s Secret Wars from Hickman and artist Esad Ribic, in which the Beyonders, now established as an entire race of beings who exist in the so-called ‘Omniverse’ beyond the bounds of Marvel’s Multiverse, are destroying the entire Multiverse to restart it as a new experiment in creating their own reality. 

To do so, they rely on Molecule Man, the sort of Multiversal ‘key’ who also played a central role in the original Secret Wars. A unique Multiversal being, Owen Reese/Molecule Man is the only person who exists in basically the exact same context and identity in every world of the Multiverse – a Beyonder-empowered time bomb whose abilities can be used to destroy entire worlds at the will of his alien masters.

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But the Multiverse has one unlikely hope in the form of none other than Doctor Doom, the old adversary of the Beyonder from back in the original Secret Wars. Once again teaming with the Molecule Man of the core Marvel 616 Universe, Doom uses his mastery of science and magic to defeat the Beyonders at the moment of the Multiverse’s collapse – only to harness their power to remake the Marvel Universe in his own image as a new Battleworld composed of bits and pieces of dozens of random worlds from the Multiverse.

Aside from a few heroes, including Miles Morales, Peter Parker, and Doom’s hated nemesis Reed Richards who were sequestered in an ‘ark’ that saved them from the destruction, nearly every Marvel character found themselves in totally different identities and status quos on Doom’s Battleworld – with Reed’s wife Sue Richards becoming Doom’s consort, and their children Franklin and Valeria his wards. As a result, Marvel canceled its entire line of titles aside from Secret Wars, replacing all of their titles with stories set in the alternate reality of Battleworld for the length of Secret Wars’ publication.

With Doom ruling Battleworld through the power of Molecule Man serving as his battery (much like the original Secret Wars), the heroes who survived being rewritten launch a plan to defeat Doom and restore the Multiverse to its original form – or at least something close to it. 

In the end, they are victorious, with Miles Morales and Peter Parker freeing Molecule Man from Doom’s clutches, allowing Reed Richards to defeat Doom. Reed and Sue, reunited with each other and with their kids, as well as the students of the Future Foundation, team up with Molecule Man to use his abilities to rebuild the Multiverse itself, staying behind in Battleworld’s extra-dimensional space to complete their mission.

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As with the original Secret Wars, 2015-16’s Secret Wars led to major status quo upheavals for many Marvel characters. First and foremost, Reed, Sue, their kids, and the Future Foundation students are all presumed dead by the larger Marvel Universe thanks to the after-effects of reality being restored. This leads to the end of the Fantastic Four not just as a team, but as a title, with Marvel outright canceling the Fantastic Four, not to return for several years, marking the first long term break in the title since the original Fantastic Four #1 (opens in new tab) launched the Marvel Universe back in 1961.

Additionally, some aspects of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe – one of the worlds destroyed in the lead-up to Secret Wars – are incorporated into the mainstream Marvel Universe, specifically Miles Morales and his supporting cast. Miles has since become a second full-time Spider-Man in the core Marvel Universe alongside Peter Parker, with stints on the Avengers and Champions.

The entire Marvel Universe also underwent a time jump between the end of Secret Wars and the start of the renewed Marvel Universe, which led to many small changes and differences from the place readers last saw many Marvel characters.

Doom, who survived Secret Wars, had his once brutally scarred face healed, leading to his brief reformation as an anti-hero, even using the name Iron Man briefly while Tony Stark was out of commission. And the X-Men and Inhumans went to war over a mutant-killing plague caused by the Inhumans’ Terrigen Mists.

Overall, though it wasn’t technically a full reboot of continuity, Marvel’s 2015-16 Secret Wars is likely the closest the publisher will ever come to a Crisis On Infinite Earths style relaunch – at least as long as the current prevailing philosophy remains in place at Marvel (though the publisher isn’t shy about retconning stories without rewriting continuity, as seen in September 8 2021’s Amazing Spider-Man #73).

Secret Wars in the MCU

If Secret Wars comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’ll likely be in a form somewhat like the way Infinity War and Endgame adapted the story of Infinity Gauntlet (opens in new tab), or how Captain America: Civil War (opens in new tab) brought in the themes and concept, though not the specifics, of the comic book Civil War (opens in new tab).

Still, it’s all gotta come down to the Multiverse, the MCU’s new toy, which is at the center of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Along with the connections shared by those movies, both of which feature Doctor Strange (if not Spider-Man, in Strange’s film sequel), the advent of the Multiversal Kang the Conqueror as the big villain of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania seems to hint at major turmoil in the MCU Multiverse, given his origins as the source of the MCU Multiverse’s last massive conflict.

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Kang, and whatever Multiversal forces he unleashes, could easily stand in for the Beyonders in an adapted Secret Wars saga that spans numerous realities. While he wasn’t one of the driving factors of the story, Kang was part of the faction of villains in the original Secret Wars (and was also one of the few villains included in the original wave of the Secret Wars toyline).

And, especially if a Battleworld style scenario of different realities butting up against each other were to come to pass, that could provide Marvel Studios the most sought after storytelling Holy Grail of all – a way to top the every-hero-ever cast of Avengers: Endgame by bringing top MCU stars such as Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans out of their retirement for one last ride, while also opening a door directly to bring in more heroes from the X-Men and Fantastic Four – both of whom had leaders introduced in Multiverse of Madness. 

Adapting Secret Wars could even be a direct conduit to send Peter Parker to Sony’s burgeoning Spider-villain spin-off universe – or bring him back to the MCU for a cameo down the road.

Will it happen? Could even Marvel Studios pull something like that off? Well, given that, when it comes to the cinematic universe they’ve created, Marvel Studios has the omnipotent power of the Beyonders, we wouldn’t put it out of their reach.

Secret Wars – both of them – are among the most impactful Marvel Comics events of all time.

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On the surface, that looks like a meeting of the worlds of street-level with supernatural, until you consider how Richard Fisk is alive.

Dead for several years (killed by his own mom… ouch) with at least three others assuming the identity of the Rose after his demise, last year Richard was supernaturally resurrected by his father the Kingpin using the Tablet of Life and Destiny and the Tablet of Death and Entropy.

That’s the long-version of he’s back from the dead by magic. We’ll see if that plays into the story.

Richard, who has vacillated over the years between serving as an underboss in his father’s criminal enterprises and scheming to undermine and sometimes kill him as something of an anti-hero, went full villain upon his return and made some appearances during the recent Devil’s Reign storyline.

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There may be a storyline coming up in which Richard and his half-brother Butch fight over filling the vacuum left by their father’s surprise (and secret) retirement (with Wilson tipping the scales in Butch’s favor), but this story doesn’t seem to be it. 

In Strange #3, Clea seems to cross paths with Richard when, as Marvel puts it, the Rose is preying on the misery and suffering of New York’s citizens.

“Clea Strange is all too familiar with the demons and monsters that stalk humans. But what happens when it’s the humans who are hunting the monsters?” reads Marvel’s description of the story. 

Here’s a look at four unlettered pages from the issue, penciled by Marcelo Ferreira, inked by Roberto Poggi and Don Ho, and colored by Java Tartaglia.

The pages also feature a look at Clea’s new fiery form as she fights some of Rose’s henchmen, stemming from her Dark Dimension heritage and familial connection with Dormammu.

Strange #3 is written by Jed MacKay and goes on sale June 1.

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Jumping a month ahead, Stephen Strange seems to be coming back … but with a zombie twist.

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Spoilers ahead for The Death of Doctor Strange #1.

Doctor Strange is dead.

Doctor Strange is alive.

There’s no resurrection involved in this sleight of hand; it’s a well-used mythological and comic book cliche that goes back centuries. In the case of The Death of Doctor Strange #1, it’s a younger version of Doctor Strange that appears following the death of his modern self, with the specific task to pick up where his older self left off.

For some Avengers fans, they’ll remember this very same kind of story in the 1995-1996 event Avengers: The Crossing (opens in new tab), with a teenage version of Tony Stark recruited from the past by the Avengers to help battle a modern-day Tony Stark who made a dark turn and aligned himself with Kang the Conqueror. The older Stark eventually regrets his ways and sacrifices himself to stop what he started, leaving a 19-year-old version of himself behind to become Marvel’s main Iron Man. Fans dubbed him ‘Teen Tony.’

It’s too soon to say what this younger version of Doctor Strange will be – he’s still old enough to have a little grey in his hair, but for now, we’ll call him Doogie Strange (after Doogie Howser, MD (opens in new tab) – hey, even our jokes are from the distant past!)

Over the course of The Death of Doctor Strange #1, it’s revealed that Doctor Strange “severed” a portion of his soul and put it away in a pocket universe as a failsafe in the event that he was killed in the future.

How did Doctor Strange die?

Midway through the issues after a series of scenes showing Doctor Strange’s day-to-day tasks, he hears a knock on his front door at the Sanctum Santorum. Strange summons his classic attire and answers it. At first, he greets them with no alarm, so it appears who or whatever is at this door is not immediately threatening to him. But then they interrupt him to say today will be his “last day.”

The fight begins with a magical blast of some sort at the Sanctum Santorum’s doorstep, then a nine-panel grid with Strange being knocked back on his heels. He’s constrained against a wall with magical blue tendrils of energy, followed by the as-yet-unrevealed assailant brandishing a dagger and then things go black.

(Remember, the Scarlet Witch is shown to have died by a fatal stabbing from a mystery figure also brandishing a dagger. This leads us to a theory on how Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch’s murders are connected.)

Although the fatal blow isn’t shown in detail, his body is found later with that dagger left in his chest – and magic users from around the Marvel notice something changing in the wind.

Another thing you might miss from reading the comic is that his hands are also missing, with pools of blood spilling out of his sleeves. After decades of being injured to the point he couldn’t perform surgery anymore, recent events restored his full use of his hands and he began doing surgery once again – well, until now of course.

Although his hands are missing, his two iconic magical items – the Eye of Agamotto and the Cloak of Levitation – remain on his body.

How does the Marvel Universe react?

Wong, Thor, Alpha Flight’s Shaman, the ghost dog Bats, Limbo’s Sorcerer Supreme Magik, Strange’s assistant Zelma Stanton, Brother Voodoo, and Reed Richards are shown feeling a reaction to the killing of Doctor Strange – even though they are far away. All have an obvious connection to magic except for Richards, who is shown being aware of it somehow by a computer monitor reading “Dimensional Breach Imminent.”

Earlier in the issue, Doyle Dormammu from the Strange Academy asks the Sorcerer Supreme about “something happening in the outer planes” that he is sensing, but isn’t aware what it is. Strange mentions this has been brought to his attention earlier that day but doesn’t have an answer for him.

Back at the crime scene, Wong, Zelda, Bats, and Brother Voodoo are the apparent first-responders to Strange’s death, although the murderer is long gone. Strange’s long-time foe Baron Mordo (with Kaecilius) arrives next. After first being blamed for the murder by Wong, Mordo says he didn’t do it – and is mad because someone else ‘stole’ his right to kill Strange himself.

They’re interrupted by a call to Doctor Strange’s Avengers membership card (yeah, it has 5G) from Captain America. Cap isn’t aware of Strange’s death, and is calling for an “Avengers emergency”.

“We need Strange. We’re tracking multiple extradimensional invasions and are emoving to engage immediately.”

According to Stanton, the Purple Dimension, the Sixth Dimension, and the sunken city of Kalumesh have already taken advantage of Strange’s barrier falling and intruded into Earth.

Earlier in the issue during a presentation to the Strange Academy, Doctor Strange outlines that part of his job as Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme is to act as “part of the planet’s natural defenses.” 

He specifically talks about a barrier spell – a “master spell” as he calls it – he must maintain that “strengthens the boundaries between our dimension and the outer planes,” which would include the Asgard, Limbo, Dark Dimension, the Celestial Concordance, the Consecution of Colors, and more. All those named have, at one point or another, attempted invasions of Earth before, and this barrier spell helps fend that off.

This storyline of the barrier spell being down will apparently spin off into the tie-in book Death of Doctor Strange: Avengers, with the Strange-less Avengers trying to respond to these magical emergencies.

But the last respondent to the death of Doctor Strange is the aforementioned younger Doctor Strange, Doogie Strange.

Who is Doogie Strange?

Although it’s not specified in The Death of Doctor Strange #1, the outfit Doogie Strange wears dates this version to a very specific time – his first year in action, November 1963 through December 1964.

When Doctor Strange first began using magic, his mentor the Ancient One gifted him a set of magical items – including a blue Cloak of Levitation and the Amulet of Agamotto. You can tell them apart from the color of the cloak, and how the Amulet of Agamotto is square. It isn’t until December 1964’s Strange Tales #127 (opens in new tab) that Strange receives the round Eye of Agamotto talisman and the more powerful red Cloak of Levitation.

(Strange ended up gifting the blue Cloak to an apprentice years later, while the Amulet remained in Strange’s possession – although Deadpool did steal it once.)

So by the looks of The Death of Doctor Strange #1, Doogie Strange is a first-year version of Doctor Strange who hasn’t completed his training under the Ancient One. He isn’t even the Sorcerer Supreme at this stage – that wouldn’t be until ten years later, in publication time.

How did Doctor Strange plan for Doogie Strange?

Strange was around when the whole ‘Teen Tony’ thing happened, but the first-person narration from Strange in The Death of Doctor Strange #1 reveals the plan is inspired by something much older – a 300+-year-old character from Russian folklore called Koschei.

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(Yes, the same Koschlei, ‘The Deathless,’ that Mike Mignola has adapted as a character in his Mignolaverse family of characters with Hellboy recently.)

There are various versions of the Koschei folklore, but the common element is that he was an evil mage who attempted to become immortal by saving a piece of his soul away and hiding it inside an object – similar to how a Horcrux is used by Voldemort in the Harry Potter mythology.

According to Strange’s narration, the Sorcerer Supreme did the same as a failsafe in case he was killed. And now it’s being put to use.

As the first issue ends, it’s a story on two fronts – one to find out who murdered Doctor Strange, but then at the same time also stepping into the breach Strange left to protect Earth against other-dimensional invasions and other magic calamities. 

It remains to be seen if Doogie Strange is just here temporarily, or will be pressed into full-time duty beyond just this series.

The story continues on October 20 with Death of Doctor Strange #2 (opens in new tab) (of 5), which you can see an advance preview of now.

Marvel has said the next Sorcerer Supreme of Earth will be named in December – and we’ve got a shortlist of potential Sorcerer Supremes already going. 

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In a rare move for the Marvel Studios president, Feige reflected on what he now believes was the wrong choice in a new interview with Men’s Health (opens in new tab).

“We thought we were being so smart, and so cutting-edge. We’re not going to do the cliché of the wizened, old, wise Asian man. But it was a wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliché and cast an Asian actor?’ And the answer to that, of course, is yes,” Feige admitted.

It’s clearly not a knock against Swinton’s performance, though it speaks to Marvel Studios’ desire to now get these things right. The Ancient One, who also appeared briefly in Avengers: Endgame, was seen by some as an example of ‘whitewashing’ – the act of replacing an Asian character with a white actor.

Things, though, are changing. Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, a predominantly Asian-led movie, is arriving this September and Feige also describes it as part of the “next sort of evolution of the MCU.”

For more on what’s coming to the MCU this year and beyond, check out our guide to Marvel Phase 4 as well as a wider look at the new Marvel TV shows just over the horizon.

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Yes, we’re getting a demonstrably excellent director steering an exciting sequel, but Raimi’s appointment could mark a significant change in how Marvel constructs the MCU going forward – and it’s an appealing shift for everyone, including Marvel directors and cinema-going fans.

Marvel is changing how it picks directors

With the greatest respect to the majority of directors who have worked with Marvel, few were big names with inimitable styles before their MCU debuts. Look back at the careers of Ryan Coogler, Captain Marvel duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the Russo Brothers, James Gunn, and Taika Waititi. These were all indie directors with zero blockbuster experience between them. Kevin Feige picked them up and put them on the Marvel conveyor belt, leading to a selection of great movies that follow a precision brewed recipe for superhero success. They are undeniably formulaic in places.

Step forward Sam Raimi, a brave pick that hints at Marvel leaning back towards directors with serious experience behind them. Not since Joss Whedon took on the Avengers: Age of Ultron (opens in new tab) has such a well-known name worked with Marvel Studios (though Waititi and the rest have become household names thanks to their Marvel flicks). That’s a big risk.

While Raimi probably won’t be given carte blanche on the story’s overarching direction, he certainly has enough cache to put his own trademark stamp – meshing heart with horror – on Multiverse of Madness. If the experiment goes well? Perhaps more big-time directors could come calling. Who knows – maybe we’ll end up with Spike Lee directing Blade. 

The MCU goes horror – and needs a firm guiding hand

As the Marvel universe continues to expand at an unprecedented rate (now including multiple Disney Plus series), Feige will need experienced hands to deal with their unexpected turns into different genres. What better place to start than with Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which sounds perhaps more out of Marvel’s comfort zone than any other Phase 4 movie announced so far. 

Benedict Cumberbatch confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 that the movie will have “a twist of horror that will really have people gripped… We’re going back to try and destroy [Stephen Strange] a bit I think.” Sure, Marvel has done espionage, ‘90s throwbacks, and a post-apocalyptic nightmare where half the universe’s population is turned to dust. But splicing scares into the Sorcerer Supreme’s next adventure will be difficult – especially if they are still aiming to reach families with these blockbusters (horror, of course, being known to throw many parents off wanting to take their children to cinemas).

Scott Derrickson, who directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose before the first Doctor Strange, did not quite make his MCU debut scary. Raimi, though, has already mastered the goofy horror with Evil Dead 2. Then there’s Drag Me to Hell, a movie that will certainly keep you up all night. Plus, he brought 50 States of Fright to the mobile streaming service Quibi, which shows the director can do bite-sized campy horror primed for younger audiences to consume. 

Raimi has superhero experience

So, Raimi has the horror experience – but also more prior superhero experience than all the other MCU directors combined. Just look at Spider-Man 2, one of the best superhero movies (opens in new tab) of all time, for good reason to trust Raimi with Doctor Strange.

The scene where Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker is unmasked and then helped by the regular folks of New York City drills into what it means to be a superhero – arguably doing so better than any other big-screen effort, Marvel or otherwise. Raimi puts emphasis on the smaller, more human aspect of saving the world that has been rarely touched upon in the MCU, and we can only hope to see the same again.

Doctor Strange desperately needs a richer world – and better villains

While Maguire’s Spidey was certainly the focal point of the Raimi trilogy, there’s no denying how impressive the webhead’s villains were. Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina thrived as Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus respectively, while J. K. Simmons was born to play J. Jonah Jameson, elevating the character beyond the comic book pages.

The MCU, however, does not have a great track record when it comes to rogues. Put it this way: Mads Mikkelsen should not have been a forgettable footnote in the MCU. Raimi can help flesh out characters both good and evil, and hopefully add some memorable faces to Marvel’s rogues’ gallery. 

Bring! Back! Tobey! Maguire!

Then there’s the webbed elephant in the room. Ok, admittedly, this one’s a pipe dream. But when again will there be a chance to bring together all the live-action Spideys? Doctor Strange 2 will be about the multiverse (the clue’s in the title) and both Sony and Marvel have a deal allowing Tom Holland to appear in the MCU. Perhaps, with some sourcery, they can have Maguire’s Spidey turn up?

We can only hope that Raimi’s previous Spider-Man experience tips this possibility into reality. Raimi never got to make Spider-Man 4, but he could just have the chance to offer just a tantalising glimpse at what could’ve been if Stephen Strange strays a little too far away from Earth-616…

We’ve started a new series that pits the team against each other with some fiendish gaming tests. Check out Challenge Radar Episode 4 (opens in new tab) here.

The post Why Sam Raimi is the perfect choice to direct Doctor Strange 2 (and what the MCU needs right now) appeared first on Game News.

Be warned: Spider-Man: Far From Home spoilers follow.

While Mysterio was telling porkies in Far From Home (his multiverse origins, inevitably, were a lie), that doesn’t mean we can now shut down any and all multiverse speculation. In fact, Feige is actively encouraging it at this point.

Feige was asked by Fandango (opens in new tab) as to whether Mysterio’s deceitful reveal means we’ll never see the multiverse in the MCU. His answer was surprisingly frank for someone who keeps secrets for a living: “No, it just means he was full of shit,” he said. “I mean, in Doctor Strange, we hear the Ancient One talk about the multiverse, so we’ve already established it as a thing.”

Wait, wait. What? It’s a thing?

Yep. The multiverse has been namechecked in Doctor Strange – and on more than one occasion. 

The Ancient One first mentions upon initially meeting Stephen Strange in Nepal. During a hallucination scene, she asks: “Who are you in this vast multiverse, Mr. Strange?”

Later, during Doctor Strange’s training, the Ancient One explains that her magic is “drawn from other dimensions of the multiverse.”

So, there you have it. Actual proof of the multiverse in the MCU. We don’t know how the multiverse will be properly introduced yet, but it’s there. Its origins as a concept in the Marvel universe have been around for some time now – we just weren’t looking hard enough.

There’s only one universe to care about at this moment in time. It’s the one where we have lots of big Amazon Prime Day game deals (opens in new tab) to look forward to. 

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