With the upcoming release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in the cinema, Marvel Studios may have the opportunity to stage an informal group of superheroes very famous in the comics…
And if… Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was the opportunity for Marvel Studios to stage one of the most powerful and charismatic informal groups of superheroes in the American publisher’s comics? That’s the theory that’s been circulating ever since a new trailer for the next Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie was shown.
Before going further in this article, a preliminary reminder: what follows contains spoilers of certain feature films that you may not have seen yet and develops hypotheses on what the film will tell. If you don’t want to know any of this, move on. If on the other hand you want to know the theory, continue!
As you know if you’ve seen Spider-Man: No Way Home, the multiverse has become a reality. The multiverse refers to this collision of different realities in the MCU, where things do not happen exactly in the dimension that we know. In another reality, the Peter Parker who embodies Spider-Man is not the same and has not lived the same adventures.
Thereby, No Way Home stages three versions of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, three versions which have existed until now separately in the cinema: the trilogy by Sam Raimi (who also happens to be the filmmaker of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ), both Amazing Spider-Man of Marc Webb and, finally, the MCU’s Spider-Man.
For fans, it brought Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland together on screen and brought together a “spider-verse,” where all Spider-Man from all dimensions could meet and cooperate — a concept that we initially saw in the comics, before being deployed in an animated film with the excellent Spider-Man: Next Generation.
But now that dimensional boundaries have been shattered, why not go even further, connecting other sagas that previously evolved independently? We think of X-Menalthough cameos already appeared with the films of Dead Pool. And it is precisely this perspective that feeds the current theory.
The Illuminati in Dr Strange?
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness could indeed be an opportunity to highlight the Illuminati group – a name that has nothing to do with conspiracy theory. They are a loose team of superheroes who strive to deal with the mess of the world by coming together and trying to coordinate, even if the points of view sometimes differ.
In the comics, the Illuminati is made up of the following members:
- Iron Man;
- Mr Fantastic;
- Namor;
- Black Arrow;
- Dr. Strange;
- Professor Javier.
Today, the MCU is all about Dr Strange, as Iron Man lost his life during the events ofAvengers: Endgame.
But with the multiverse, anything is possible: there may be another reality in which Iron Man is alive. However, rumors evoke a version of Iron Man in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness who would be played by a certain… Tom Cruise, and not Robert Downey Jr., because this Tony Stark would come from another universe.
What about the other four characters then? Imagine that they already exist through other film or television adaptations of Marvel: Mr Fantastic was played by two actors: Ioan Gruffudd in two films released in 2005 and 2007, and Miles Teller in a reboot in 2015. multiverse could call on one of the two actors.
Regarding Black Arrow, we must remember that a TV series of a single season of eight episodes, but which was canceled, starred lackagar Boltagon, alias Black Arrow. The actor for this role was Anson Mount. He too could be called back for an Illuminati cameo. It should also be noted that Marvel Studios is planning a film on The Inhumanswhich Black Arrow directs.
For both of them, the whole question is whether agreements before the rights holders have been made: the series The Inhumans was produced for the ABC television network, while the rights to The Fantastic Four belong to 20th Century Studios. But after all, Marvel Studios did a good job of coming to terms with Sony to include all Spider-Man.
Namor and Professor Xavier remain. For Namor, this one hasn’t appeared on screen yet, but it’s announced for the next Black Panther movie (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). He is to be played by Tenoch Huerta Mejía. But if the track of the Illuminati is confirmed, is it really him that we will see in the film of Dr Strange? Nothing is certain with the multiverse.
Professor Xavier in Doctor Strange 2?
As for Professor Xavier, some consider that the trailer shown on the night of January 13 to 14 very fleetingly evoked a version of Charles Xavier played by Patrick Stewart in seven films (there is also James McAvoy who played in a rejuvenated version, but the voice-over that we hear suggests that it is rather Patrick Stewart who will be shown).
Is it unlikely? It should be remembered that Disney succeeded in 2017 in recovering major licenses from Marvel with the acquisition of Twentieth Century Fox – this is the case of the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, among others. In fact, with the multiverse, it is quite possible to make connections that until now seemed impossible.
Another clue to consider: a scene from the trailer shows a shot where we see Dr. Strange walking into a large room, at the end of which there is a platform and six seats – six, like the number of the Illuminati. These are obviously hidden by the backlight, but one of them is obviously speaking – and it is his voice and his profile, very difficult to perceive, which suggest that it is by Professor Xavier.
Of course, this theory remains very uncertain, even if a body of indices supports it. Marvel Studios could very well take up the principle of a clandestine group of superior superheroes, but whose composition would be quite different: instead of having Iron Man, we could have someone else. After all, it is a flexible structure.
The theory of the Illuminati in the multiverse is supported finally by the fact that this collective is supposed to form after the Kree-Skrull war, which is a major arc of the Marvel comics. But this confrontation could be the red thread of phase 4 of the MCU, given what the previous films have said and what is planned (like the series Secret Invasion).
The validity of this hypothesis of the Illuminati in the MCU remains to be verified when the film is released – perhaps we have lost our way in the maze of the multiverse of theories! But now that we’ve seen what it’s possible to do with No Way Home (and with what talent the secret has been rather well kept until the end), we can expect anything.
