While a release date hasn’t been officially set and there’s no title or plot details as of yet, Kevin Feige has promised that there will be a sequel to Doctor Strange in the MCU. Following Strange’s pivotal role in Infinity War and Endgame – hatching the plan that would end up saving the world (after a lot of temporary death and heartache, of course) – Marvel fans are more excited than ever to see the Sorcerer Supreme continue his solo adventures on the big screen.
So, ahead of any possible announcements at Comic-Con, here are 10 Things We Want To See In Doctor Strange 2.
The psychological toll of watching the world end 14 million times
Just like Tony Stark suffered from PTSD after a near-death experience going through a wormhole to win the Battle of New York in The Avengers, Stephen Strange should suffer the psychological consequences of watching the world end 14 million times (and also dying and coming back to life). He had to watch Thanos win the battle against the Avengers in more than 14 million different ways, probably watching his existing friends like Wong and his new partners like Tony die horribly along the way.
He also had to make the decision for Tony and Natasha to give their lives for the greater good. You’d have to pay a serious mental price for that.
An Avenger cameo
Now that Stephen Strange’s origin story is out of the way and he’s been fully ingratiated into the wider world of the MCU, thanks to an intergalactic skirmish with the Mad Titan, it would be great to see a fellow Avenger make a cameo appearance in his solo sequel.
Tom Holland has recently said that it would be fun to see Spider-Man and Doctor Strange team up in a movie after their banter in Infinity War (and because the clash of science and magic would be interesting), while Strange’s established relationship with Thor would be even funnier now that the God of Thunder has become what Chris Hemsworth has termed “Lebowski Thor.”
The “too many sorcerers” post-credits scene paid off
Since every MCU movie has at least one post-credits tease (although it’s usually two or more) and there are three released every year, they don’t always end up getting paid off. For example, we still haven’t seen the original Guardians of the Galaxy get back together.
In the post-credits scene of Doctor Strange, Karl Mordo stripped Jonathan Pangborn of his mystical powers, telling him that there were “too many sorcerers” on Earth. Whether Mordo’s quest to rid less powerful magicians of their powers continues or Pangborn seeks revenge against Strange, this post-credits stinger needs to be paid off in the sequel.
The physical toll of intergalactic magic use
In the comics a few years ago, Stephen Strange began to suffer the physical effects that big magic (like, say, watching 14 million futures, transporting hundreds of people across the cosmos for an epic battle, or holding off a tidal wave) had on his body.
There was even a dark storyline in which he found out that Wong had been sacrificing human lives to make up for the toll that Strange’s larger uses of magic were taking on the physical world. Now, the MCU is unlikely to go that dark, but there’s certainly a similarly shocking twist that could suit the franchise’s tone.
Redemption for the Stephen Strange/Christine Palmer romance
Christine Palmer felt like an afterthought in Doctor Strange. She wasn’t fully developed and it seemed like the writers were just ticking off “love interest” on their MCU solo movie checklist. However, all hope is not lost for her. Jane Foster wasn’t truly despised by fans until she was given an even more boring and banal role in Thor: The Dark World, so there’s still a chance to salvage the Stephen/Christine romance.
It’s not yet confirmed if Rachel McAdams will return, but if she does, it would be interesting to see her character grow into a kind of audience surrogate in the unusual world of magic. As a regular person surrounded by these crazy mystical things that people like Strange and Wong see as totally normal, she could also make for great comic relief.
Stephen Strange becoming the Sorcerer Supreme
Although Stephen Strange is often referred to as the Sorcerer Supreme, including by the Russo brothers at a red-carpet event where they introduced Benedict Cumberbatch to the stage, he hasn’t actually officially been given the title of “Sorcerer Supreme” in the MCU.
So far, he’s just the master of New York’s Sanctum Sanctorum. It seems unlikely that he would’ve become the Sorcerer Supreme off-screen between his first solo outing and Infinity War. Rather, it should be his character’s journey in the sequel. By the end of Doctor Strange 2 (or maybe in the beginning, as a reward for defeating Thanos), he should be officially appointed as the Sorcerer Supreme.
The other Masters of the Mystic Arts
In Infinity War, Doctor Strange explained that the Masters of the Mystic Arts have never helped the Avengers with battles like Sokovia and New York because they deal with interdimensional threats, whereas the Avengers deal with physical threats.
This, paired with the fact that all the other Masters of the Mystic Arts showed up to help in the gargantuan Battle of Earth at the end of Avengers: Endgame, has gotten fans excited for the rest of this team to make an appearance in Doctor Strange 2 to help Strange fend off an interdimensional threat that he can’t take alone. It would be interesting to emphasize them as a team, rather than just a group of loosely connected magicians.
The consequences of giving up the Time Stone
The Ancient One said that every Master of the Mystic Arts has sworn an oath to protect the Time Stone as it is their primary weapon. However, at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Captain America went back in time to put all the Infinity Stones back where they came from.
This included the Time Stone, which Professor Hulk specifically promised would be returned to the Ancient One at Sanctum Sanctorum. It’s unclear what the ramifications of breaking that oath will turn out to be, but either way, that oath can’t be ignored in the Doctor Strange sequel. Stephen Strange is now in a timeline with no Time Stone – he’s screwed.
A Scarlet Witch team-up
It’s unlikely that Scarlet Witch will ever get a solo movie in the MCU (although she is getting a series on Disney+), but she is still suffering from the events of Captain America: Civil War. She accidentally took some lives while trying to save others and led to the Avengers breaking apart with the introduction of the Sokovia Accords. She never fully recovered from her depression after this.
However, if Stephen Strange took her on as an apprentice, he could teach her how to harness her powers better – and make her as interesting as she’s always deserved to be. It would also be really fun to see two different types of magic – one from a Master of the Mystic Arts and the other from a mutant witch – playing against one another.
Nightmare as the villain
Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson, who is in talks to return for the sequel, wanted to include Nightmare as the villain in the first one. He intended to lather the silver screen with trippy visuals as Strange explored nightmares as an entirely separate dimension. However, since introducing Nightmare would’ve made the movie too crowded while it also had to tell an origin story, producer Kevin Feige asked him to save it for a potential sequel.
Now that the sequel is happening, we can finally see Nightmare on the screen. The filmmakers should bring in the artists who created Mysterio’s mind-boggling illusions for Spider-Man: Far From Home.