Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, currently in theaters, contains its fair share of Marvel comics references, including the name of the multiverse Earth on which the Avengers evolve.
As the title of the film indicates, the second solo adventure of the hero embodied by Benedict Cumberbatch is interested in the multiverse, i.e. this set of universes (and therefore of Earths) present in Marvel comics since 1939 and exploited since very recently in the cinema and television.
Indeed, last year, the Loki series presented several versions of Thor’s brother (called variations) and the animated show What If was also interested in alternative versions of the Avengers. Spider-Man: No Way Home then rushed into the breach by recalling the former interpreters of the Spinner (Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield) to lend a hand to the Peter Parker of the MCU played by Tom Holland.
The multiverse thus contains a multitude of Earths, populated by alternate versions of Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and any other hero that we have come to know so far in the cinema.
A carefully chosen number!
In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the Stephen Strange of the MCU is therefore led to visit several universes, including one where he meets a version of Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) who tells him that he has named all the Earths of the multiverse and that that of where he comes from is Earth 616.
A replica that will not go unnoticed by comic book readers since it is precisely the term used to designate the planet on which the main continuity of the Marvel paper universe takes place. A wink after all, since Earth 616 on the big screen is therefore also the one that spectators know best.
As for the planet on which the ex-Sorcerer Supreme meets the Illuminati (a new group of heroes embodied by faces well known to superhero fans), it is named Earth 838!
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