Doctor Strange accidentally sets up the conflict between the Avengers and Doctor Doom within the story of the MCU timeline, having Doctor Strange play an important role in the two Avengers movies that tie up the Multiverse Saga would make a lot of sense, and give the franchise some no doubt much-appreciated extra connective tissue after its pivot from Kang to Doom as its new central villain.
With Strange last being seen in the main timeline jetting off to other planes of reality in order to try and help fix an Incursion he's stated to have caused, it does seem whatever happens next in his story could be paramount for the stories of MCU releases. However, one theory that connects the story of Avengers: Doomsday to Spider-Man: No Way Home suggests Strange has already carried out his most important actions in the Multiverse Saga, and inadvertently put things in motion to have Doctor Doom target the MCU's focal universe, Earth-616, as a result.
Doctor Strange's Spells In Spider-Man: No Way Home Disrupt The Multiverse & Then Save It From Peril
Doctor Strange's spells serve dual purposes in the story of Spider-Man: No Way Home. The first of the major spells in the story kicks off the plot, with Strange's casting of magic intended to let everyone who discovered Spider-Man is Peter Parker - thanks to the ending of Spider-Man: Far From Home - forget this detail going awry. Instead, the corrupted version of the spell flings a roster of characters from other Spider-Man movies into the MCU world, and places the multiverse in danger as it does so, setting both Strange and Spider-Man off on their respective arcs in the film.
The second, climactic way Strange's universe-altering spells are used in the movie is to then undo the initial chaos Stephen Strange and Peter Parker accidentally unleashed on the multiverse - albeit at the cost of Spider-Man having to sacrifice his bonds with his loved ones in order to do so. Without this spell, it seems that Earth-616 would have been destroyed, and others likely harmed alongside it, assuming the magic used to bring the characters en masse to the MCU's home universe would have also had a negative effect on them as well.
Spider-Man: No Way Home released in December 2021, marking 5 years between its debut and the time of Avengers: Doomsday's December 2026 release.
While the larger implications of this haven't been explored in the MCU - and indeed likely won't be until Spider-Man: Brand New Day at the earliest - it's easy to see how these two multiverse-changing moments of magic use could well have larger implications for the universe. Indeed, this would arguably help to retroactively make the story of Spider-Man: No Way Home even better by giving it yet more overarching significance, and ensuring the colossal impact of altering the known MCU multiverse twice isn't hand waved away as something only Strange and Peter are aware even happened.
Spider-Man: No Way Home's Multiverse Spells Would Be The Perfect Excuse To Have Doctor Doom Turn On The Main MCU World
One of the biggest theories about Doctor Doom's MCU story is that it will posit him as a figure looking to protect his own universe or otherwise harboring motives that are for "the greater good" in of the multiverse. With Doom set to be the Multiverse Saga's central antagonist, and with Avengers: Secret Wars itself drawing from more than one comic that sees universes pitted against one another, there's certainly already a backdrop to suggest this narrative approach may be par for the course when it comes to Victor Von Doom's arc.
As such, the fact that Earth-616 is already behind two spells that drastically changed the multiverse could well be reason enough for Doom to regard the MCU's main universe as a threat to his own. With the corrupted spell no doubt creating havoc in the multiverse upon being unleashed, it'd make sense for a brutal and pragmatic villain like Doctor Doom to see his gesture as reflective of the danger this alternate world poses to him and his homeworld, if not potentially even akin to an act of war when factoring in Victor's somewhat historically dramatic mindset in the comics.
Similarly, the fact that Doctor Strange had the power to so drastically alter the multiverse and who was in what universe itself may be something that characters like Doom could take as a sign this universe is too dangerous to continue onwards. With characters getting stuck in other universes established as something that can cause Incursions - lethal collisions between two universes that can result in both being destroyed - Doctor Doom realizing what happened here could justifiably be enough to encourage him to "deal with" another universe that seems like it could put his own in this kind of danger.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Could Add Further Reason For Doctor Doom To Oppose The Main MCU World
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness followed up on Stephen Strange's story by putting him in an installment that explored the MCU's multiverse in even greater detail. Interestingly, the story of the Doctor Strange sequel also sees previous heroes from Earth-616 become threats to other universes, this time via Scarlet Witch's corruption from the Darkhold leading her to hunt down Strange and America Chavez, crafting a path of destruction and bloodshed along the way.
Notably, this most prominently involved Wanda brutally dispatching the main hero team guarding over Earth-838, killing all of the Illuminati bar Karl Mordo. In a scenario where Doctor Doom would be looking into the exploits of Earth-616 and the potential danger they posed, learning that people from this world also wiped out the protectors of an alternate universe would likely only solidify his belief that the MCU's focal world is a massive danger that he needs to deal with as soon as possible.
Given Doctor Strange leaves his home universe with Clea in the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ending, it also seems the movie may further validate Doom turning on Earth-616 by having the one character who could potentially shed light on what really happened in Spider-Man: No Way Home and the 2022 Doctor Strange movie not be there to explain everything should Doctor Doom show up wanting answers. As such, if Avengers: Doomsday does go down this line, there's a lot of prior MCU material it could use to set up and justify its story.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
- Release Date
- December 17, 2021
- Runtime
- 148 Minutes
- Director
- Jon Watts
Cast
Peter Parker
MJ
WHERE TO WATCH
- Writers
- Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Steve Ditko
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