The MCU's Doctor Strange and The Multiverse of Madness promises to deliver some of the most intriguing and varied locales of the MCU so far. The title alone guarantees some visits to places never before seen (though one place the film could maybe please visit is its original release date).
With the entire Multiverse at his fingertips, Doctor Stephen Strange can go anywhere in time and space. But where should he go? What places should he avoid? Let's take a look at some famous (and infamous) dimensions from the comics Strange could go, and should avoid.
Visit: Otherworld
Otherworld has gotten a nice, new spotlight recently thanks to its role in the pages of Excalibur. Otherworld, also known as Avalon, is a pretty high fantasy dimension from which much of the legendarium of Great Britain, such as King Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table hail from. It's also the location of the Starlight Citadel, an outpost from which the Captain Britain Corps base their patrol of the larger Omniverse. All of that makes it a logical place for the film to start knocking on doors with.
Skip: Punch Dimension
Not a dimension where a power-mad Punch from Punch and Judy has seized all power, but an actual real thing that actually happened, the Punch Dimension is the place Cyclops' optic blasts come from. That's right. Early on, it was suggested that instead of being basically lasers or fire (that would melt his eyeballs), Cyclops' blasts are concussive in nature. This because his eyes open miniature doorways to a universe of nothing but red energy and later America Chavez confirms this when she - you guessed it - punches into the Punch Dimension.
Visit: Mojoverse
Mojoverse or bust. This would be a great opportunity to walk along the borders of the mutant corner of the MCU without getting too deep into it. The Mojoverse is a strange dimension out of space and out of time, literally. Television broadcast signals from Earth arrive there out of synch and so distorted they drove its native inhabitants, The Spineless Ones, insane. One such creature, Mojo, took advantage of the power of television and enslaved the population by forcing them to watch endless shows.
Skip: Brimstone Dimension
The Brimstone Dimension makes some sense, as Nightcrawler has to be teleporting through something as he bamfs between one place and the other, but it ends up limiting the character.
In an attempt to tie the character further to his religious roots, they had his father (?) Azazel and his people, the demonic and very Nightcrawler-looking Neyaphem, originate from this dimension (along with some angelic beings they fight, it's a whole thing). Rather than this being Nightcrawler's unique and personal power, it gets watered down quite a bit.
Visit: Weirdworld
Making its debut in Marvel Premiere #38 back in 1977, Weirdworld is a dimension comprised entirely of magic. Fans of Lord of the Rings and Conan The Barbarian might find it familiar. You had elves, dwarves, and giant monsters. And it was all just off the edge of the main Marvel Universe.
Weirdworld kept pretty much to itself though, until recently. After the Secret Wars storyline in 2015, the dimension slowly began to interact with Earth-616, serving as a new home base for the Black Knight.
Skip: Marvel 1602
An intriguing, daring concept by acclaimed author and comic book legend Neil Gaiman, the 1602 dimension nevertheless is one Doctor Strange should avoid. In this reality, the majority of the prominent Marvel heroes emerge in the Elizabethan Age, with corresponding changes in their names, such as the 'Fantastic Four'.
Unlike other prominent alternate realities, this one has yet to have any major crossover to the main Marvel timeline. The dimension of Earth-311 is just weird enough to be interesting, but perhaps not as visually or narratively compelling for the film to visit.
Visit: Quantum Zone
The MCU has visited the Quantum Realm before, and Doctor Strange is aware of it, but the sequel would be an ideal time for a more in-depth investigation. As fans discovered in Ant-Man 2, Janet Van Dyne spent a considerable amount of time there, and there appeared to be some kind of settlement in the distance as she left with Hank Pym.
Are there other people there? Natives? Perhaps other travelers like Janet who became trapped? Or just other tourists from other dimensions?
Skip: Marvel Zombies
Easily one of Marvel's darkest alternate dimensions, it's also one of the most skippable. Though, with Sam Raimi at the helm of the Doctor Strange sequel, the temptation to visit a world that recalled Evil Dead in the slightest might be overwhelming.
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Still, cool as zombies are, they're kind of familiar at this point. What the MCU needs more than anything in the post-Infinity Saga phases is a sense of unexpectedness. Avoiding a pitstop in a zombie horror movie would go a long way toward that.
Visit: House of M
We know that Scarlet Witch will play a role in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and that her upcoming Disney+ series Wandavision, leads into the film. We don't know how or why yet, but one verse that would make enormous sense to visit in the film would be the reality Wanda created in the comics called House of M.
With a simple phrase, Wanda reduced mutants from the world down to around two hundred. With another simple phrase in the film, she could introduce them to the MCU.
Skip: Pocket Universe
Though the instinct to go here will be strong thanks to the fact the Pocket Universe in the comics once sequestered the MCU core heroes of Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, and the Avengers from the rest of the Marvel Universe (sounds familiar) it's best avoided.
Franklin Richards, son of Reed and Sue, and his hard to fathom mutant power to alter reality would thread a lot of needles for the upcoming integration of the Fox properties into Marvel Studios. But it would be a lot to introduce and a little too far down the road in terms of where those characters need to start their MCU journeys.