So you have watched Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and you’re now wondering: “What now?”

If you’re like us, then you wanted more of the Multiverse in MoM and that end credit scene really got you fired up. And naturally, we didn’t have two hours to talk about this in our first reaction episode, so we saved some of the really big MCU important topics for a whole different episode. So here you are, you’ve wandered here and we are going to break down the Multiverse and the end credit scene, along with some thoughts on why we think Secret Wars is coming. If you haven’t listened to our podcast episode detailing everything, make sure to either click the button below to find your listening platform of choice or follow the link to begin listening.

So we were supposed to be in the MADNESS of the Multiverse, right? Can’t say I felt that way. Something I noticed the longer the film went on was the immense lack of Multiverse we were actually getting. Not including Earth 616 (give me a second to get to that), we really only visited two other Multiverses. That blew my mind, since I expected some absolute mind-boggling universes to be presented to us and instead we had two. They were cool and all but I just felt a huge lack of Multiversal madness. The best scene was truly Strange and America falling through the different universes, as I felt the chaos of all of it. As we will get to in a second, and was mentioned a little in the Reactions Part 1 blog post, the craziness of the Multiverse seems to have actually been pushed to the next Dr. Strange film (or even further).

Before I can really talk about the implications of everything and where we may or may not see the Multiverse go, I want to dive into that critical end credit scene. No, I’m not talking about the guy who finally stopped hitting himself because I can acknowledge that that definitely annoyed some fans and I’m not here to do that. I’m talking about the introduction of Clea and the name dropping of a possible Incursion. For one, if you aren’t familiar with Clea, she actually ends up being Strange’s wife in the comics and comes from the Dark Dimension. She’s going to be pretty cool and was likely introduced here as this film really covered Strange moving on from Christine finally. On top of this, if you didn’t get her comment about an Incursion taking place, essentially she is saying that two (or more) universes are colliding, where only one may survive or they both might destroy each other. And this time around, I think the stakes for Earth 616 are much higher, as we are likely going to see our universe be part of the Incursion. I say this like it isn’t stating the obvious mainly because Taylor and I both had thought we would have some high stakes in MoM, but in reality Earth 616 was honestly sorta chilling.

So what the heck are we supposed to expect now? I have answers and it might stress you out or might make your day. I truly couldn’t tell you which it’ll be. But where we are now likely preparing to go is Secret Wars. We will have more information explaining Secret Wars and how we are getting there in our episode coming out this week, but for now I can say that the speculation for this storyline has hit an all time high. This is due to the fact that Secret Wars comes from an Incursion taking place which essentially combines universes and eventually forms a place called Battleworld. There’s a lot more to that but I am giving you the most simplified version at the moment. If you need an idea picturing this, kinda think of Pangea. Or look at the image I have provided for you as some help.

Now you understand my whole Pangea comment? Great, moving along. So this is where we might go and this means we are in for quite a ride. I think many of us expected there to be some high stakes in MoM, and while we didn’t really feel that, it definitely served as a stepping stone and explanation film. It was giving us what the Multiverse was like so when they explode our minds with Secret Wars we aren’t completely lost (or at least let’s hope not). This being said, we are likely going to see small things relating to the Multiverse in upcoming works, but I don’t think we need to expect more than hints. For one, the next few films and shows shouldn’t relate to Multiversal things and two, at this point the Multiverse is open and poop will hit the fan in the right films.

All of this being said, we may finally have a direction for the next few phases of the MCU, which is something I think many fans have been waiting anxiously for. I really would like to think this is something we can truly stand behind to help us understand some of the content and their connectedness moving forward. And we aren’t stopping with the Multiverse, as we have three back-to-back works coming out this summer that are likely unrelated to the Multiverse at all. As for us, stay tuned for our next episode discussing Secret Wars and how that storyline might work, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Dr. Strange and Clea MoM”, Matt McGloin, CosmicBook

The Madness has ended…or has it?

After months of waiting and so much hype, Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has come and gone just like everything else (crying internally). It feels almost impossible for another huge movie blockbuster from Marvel to have happened and we all are just forced to move on from it. It’s actually quite rude that they even ask us to. And now we might have to wait even longer for answers? Unacceptable Marvel, you’re killing me here. But I want to get into MoM right away because I actually can’t gush about it the way I thought I would. I mean, I gushed about it more going into it than coming out and that’s saying something. I will say, everything aside, this is, of course, our opinions on the films and you are as welcome to your own, whether they agree or disagree with ours. I say this because there seems to be quite a bit of disconnect on how people feel about this film, so for our fully explained thoughts, click the button below to find your listening platform of choice or follow the link to start listening.

For those who follow us regularly, you know I am a huge Wanda fan and that I was going into this film ready for destruction. Well, I would say I certainly got that from my girl Wanda. But overall, I have to say the film didn’t particularly do anything for me. As I was watching, I felt that I just was waiting and waiting for something more to happen and it just never did. Wanda was a scene-stealer, which I was fine with, but I just felt disconnected from the events of the film. I didn’t walk out shocked or on a high from the film, I walked out surprised that that is what I waited 5 months for. Trust me, it pains me to say it, but Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness simply didn’t do it for me. They sacrificed strong storytelling for the action and you could tell, as the pacing felt off the entire time. We had near to no exposition to lay it all out for us making the transition from the first act to the second wonky. But I won’t harp on my general feelings without giving a full explanation to all of you, so let’s get into it.

As I mentioned, I am a Wanda girl and was going to root for her no matter what. But unfortunately, while Elizabeth Olsen did an amazing job portraying the evil Scarlet Witch, the writing was still a little off. Once again, we have fallen victim to the people involved in the film not doing their homework, and lord could you tell. Wanda finished WandaVision doing the right thing and still being a hero, and while the Darkhold did get a hold of her, we only had 30 seconds to make assumptions that she was going down a dark path. Then suddenly she is pure evil, willing to kill a child to get to her own, even though they never really existed in our universe. WandaVision was about healing, especially from her grief over Vision, yet that was continuously a point for her in this film as well. I’m not saying I didn’t mind her being evil, but we never really saw the descent into it, so it felt jarring. The whole film I wanted to root for her but couldn’t feel my Wanda (see what I did there), yet it’s true, I didn’t feel her she felt like this random bad guy, no different than any other Marvel film. I won’t say she wasn’t still a sympathetic villain, but she didn’t for a second feel like the Wanda we know and love.

I will 100% get into the cameo business, but I want to address that many who liked the film a lot argue that those who don’t like it felt the way they did because people had too high of expectations, particularly in the cameo area. I want to say I had expectations related to NWH and I know Taylor can agree to this. Obviously, with this film coming out after NWH and Dr. Strange being in the film we all expected it to be a follow-up, directly coming after the events of NWH. Even the trailers (which I will also get to) portrayed that our universe was in jeopardy because of Strange’s actions in NWH. But then this factor felt extremely left out in this film and it seemed that everything Strange did in NWH didn’t affect just about anything. The Multiverse seemed fine and they used America essentially as a scapegoat for Strange traveling through the Multiverse. I will say, both Taylor and I expected our universe to be falling apart and for the stakes to feel a whole lot higher than they did in a film regarding the Multiverse.

I said I would address it and here it is. Simply put, the trailers completely ruined this film in my opinion. Far too much was released ahead of time, essentially giving us the entire plot. I knew at almost any given scene how it would play out because of the trailers. They also exposed way too many of the cameos and this is why I bring it up. For those of you who read the predictions post for MoM, you know I said almost verbatim that if they were giving us this much in the trailers, then the movie itself had to have so much more. I think that was a fair assumption to make, the only problem being that that wasn’t true at all. They gave us everything, including Captain Carter, Maria as Captain Marvel, and comic accurate Professor X all in the trailers, and then there were only two more genuinely shocking cameos. As I said, the plot became predictable as well because of what was released in the trailers, and honestly, it sort of just sucked because I was really only shocked a few times.

I will say, one of the biggest shocks for me was those kill scenes cause they were off the wall. I didn’t expect my girl Wanda to just go off like that, completely murdering the Illuminati as if it was no one’s business. Not to mention, Lizzie has come out and said that the Wanda whose body the Scarlet Witch was using actually held back her power slightly, so the actual Scarlet Witch could have done a whole lot more damage than what we already saw. And of course, I can’t not talk about how much I love the Captain Carter kill cause we all know I don’t like her for various reasons. I definitely rooted her on for that one specifically.

But now we wait for another Dr. Strange film, huh? I think what the end credit did was perfect for what it needed to, but it did make this film like a Part 1 to a very important Part 2. For those of you who have seen Harry Potter, it feels a lot like Deathly Hallows Part 1, when the entire film works to set up the second one, and yes there’s some action but it didn’t really solve anything because it is getting us to a second, more important film. But now we have it, the Incursion is happening, Clea is here, and our Strange is being corrupted by the Darkhold that he has stored in his photographic memory. But I won’t go too deeply into this thought just yet, as we have a whole episode coming to talk more about the Multiverse aspect of this episode, this very important end credit scene, and why we think Secret Wars is being set up.

With all this being said, make sure to keep an eye out for our upcoming episode and corresponding blog post. I want to reiterate that the movie isn’t hated, just certainly not one of my favorite films for various reasons, as just explained. I am really hoping Dr. Strange 3 can give us a lot more of that multiversal action, as I was really looking forward to it here and didn’t get as much as I hoped. But moving forward, we will continue to cover the Multiverse and MoM leading up to our one year of being a podcast! Tune it for that very exciting episode in early June as well, where we will do some looking back on the past year and talk about some of the cool things to come in year two. While I don’t know your thoughts on MoM, I will still say in some way or another, that Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, JenniferJoy, Bullfrag

The time has officially arrived to unleash the Madness.

Whether you can believe it or not, Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is here and we are hyped. Of course, if you have been following us you know we have been talking about it quite a bit, both in relation to other shows and also in its’ own episodes. This is quite a moment, as this is the only film to have had two (semi) predictions episodes come prior to our official predictions episode, so for the sake of making it easy, I have dropped the links to both of our earlier episodes covering the first two trailer drops. This latest episode picks up from there, talking about some more theories that we have leftover going into all of this. I do want to let you know that the day AFTER we recorded this episode, another huge TV spot left us with more information, so this blog post will include some of the theories and thoughts that came from that as well. If you’re ready to go into Madness, click the button below or listen to all three of the podcasts linked.

Since we spent most of our newest episode discussing it, I want to start off talking about Wanda and her fate in this film. By this I mean, is she going to be a good guy or a bad guy. Now, we did discuss this before, but the newer trailers are painting her to possibly now be a good guy (as the first few weren’t looking too hot). Here’s our take: Wanda won’t be evil when Strange shows up for help, but I think she will realize what he is asking means the Multiverse is open and can be used for her to find her children. I don’t think she is going into this a villain, however, I do think she will seek her opportunity to find her kids and if that places her on the wrong side I don’t think she will care. I also think she will help Strange with his Multiversal problem until her helping him no longer helps her agenda. This is why I think we see some scenes where she appears to be fighting with him and others where it seems she is obliterating the good guys (y’all know exactly what scene I’m talking about). We also now have gotten a scene of her storming into the Illuminati and wreaking havoc, so I think it is safe to say Wanda is a mother who will do absolutely whatever it takes to get her children back, no matter who stands in her way.

Now Mordo’s involvement in this film has been discussed before, but now we see that he is involved with the Illuminati. This doesn’t really surprise me, since the Illuminati acts as special beings police essentially and Mordo really hates magic users. Strange being forced to see them/captured isn’t all that shocking since he sorta destroyed the universe and allowed for the Multiverse to create chaos. I think the biggest thing that threw me off was Mordo’s involvement in this film altogether. We obviously knew he was set up for a villain role in another Dr. Strange film, but this movie is so congested with chaos that I was really shocked they had him in this one. I’m going to be intrigued to see if this will be the end of Mordo and if he will act as the main “big bad”, if you will, of this film. He doesn’t have a ton of screen time in the trailers, which obviously indicates near to nothing, but it still means that there is so much else going on already in the trailers that I feel the movie might end up the same way. My best bet is Wanda will possibly stop Mordo, since I think there’s an element to where she needs Strange’s help, so him being captured doesn’t exactly help her.

So a huge TV spot spoiler was the scenes of Captain Carter making her appearance. I don’t think this fully surprised people, since we also see Evil Strange from the What If? series as well. I think what suprised a lot of us was that we got this confirmation at all. We knew What If? was going to play a role (and if you haven’t watched it literally go watch it NOW), but the role seems to have increased drastically. If they are willing to show Captain Carter, then what else should we be expecting to see from that series? I am 100% hinting at the possibity of seeing Ultron Vision, which would be literally so amazing and terrifying I think I would cry. But the entire series is up for grabs and we now have to be prepared to see any of the What If? scenerios, including zombies as well.

As I said, the biggest shock to Marvel from the fans was Captain Carter’s cameo, since it left many fans asking: Who are the big cameos then? If they’re willing to show us that, then there are some major cameos making their way, even bigger than we anticipated. So who the heck are they? Can we expect the X-Men? I’m betting if we get any X-Men (minus Professor X since he is confirmed) it would be either Quicksilver or Wolverine. Quicksilver for the sake of Wanda, but Wolverine for the final fairwell to Hugh Jackman in that role. Friendly reminder de-aging technology is possible, so we could see him at any point in his film journey. Are we going to see old friends? I would be shocked if we didn’t. I’m thinking some people who we won’t ever see again, like Cap, Iron Man, or Nat. If we consider the What If? series, then we have to consider that they took one Natasha out of one story and put her in another, so it is possible that we could see something similar (please, I’m begging). But I think the cameo I would absolutely love the most would be the Human Torch played by Chris Evans. There’s just something about having Cap back not as Cap that would be both hilarious and satisfying. But like I said, if we saw Captain Carter already, then the cameos that are going to happen have to be HUGE.

Let’s discuss our end credit scene predictions, since those are going to be a mess. Taylor and I essentially have reached the conclusion that because we have not a clue what will happen in this film, predicting end credit scenes is close to impossible. But we do have some thoughts. I’m going with one of the end credit scenes being related to Wanda, as there has been a lot of talk about her getting her own film(s). I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a little end credit scene setting this up in some way or setting up something for her kid’s future. But I think the shock factor end credit scene, the one that will leave the audience screaming, crying, or throwing up is going to be a full introduction to the next big group, aka the new X-men (or old?) or the new Fantastic Four (or old?). I put the old ones in only for the sake that what would leave the audience really shocked would be seeing the older groups, just like seeing our Spider-Men. But, for the sake of an end credit and the setting up of another film or show, introducing the next generation of either of these groups would make the most sense.

I hate to bring up what I am about to bring up, but since we are talking about end credit scenes, I want to share a thought Taylor and I both included as a possible end credit scene. This would be THE shock factor, the end credit scene that would leave us talking more than Venom licking a little Tom Spidey on a TV screen. And that would be the introduction or mega hint to the man (or demon?) himself: Mephisto. I know I just caused a major uproar and I am so sorry since I know we have quite literally been talking about Mephisto since WandaVision. But for those of you that are familiar with the comics, Mephisto plays a HUGE role in essentially most of the storylines we have been seeing and some of the ones predicted to come our way. This is so important to us to try and prove my guy is coming, so I’m linking here a link to his comic book appearances and summaries of them for all of you to do some light reading and understand the roles he could be playing.

I want to wrap this up with some talk on the Multiverse itself. Clearly, this film is a culminating point to what much of Phase 4 has been creating. So now the big question we have been asking is will it stay open? My best bet is no, but we will be living with the consequences of whoever comes through while it is open for a very long time. We also have received confirmation on how some of the Multiverse opening process works, so we finally found out that Loki and Sylvie’s actions and Kang’s death is what allowed Strange’s spell in NWH to go wrong. This let’s us know a little bit better of a time line and how some of that process goes together. But the Multiverse is endless and the things we could see because of it are huge. If they do choose to keep it open, which would make sense for characters like America Chavez who travels through the Multiverse, we would have literally endless storylines and possibilities. No one would stay dead, nothing would be permanent, and there will always be bad guys worse than the one before.

Well, we have come to the final end of our predictions and the next time I will talk to y’all will be after Taylor and I both have seen MoM. I am hoping everyone bought tickets, as early showings start TONIGHT and this is a huge opening weekend. I can’t lie and say I am not sitting here currently anxious about what I am walking into in a few hours. I genuinely hope everyone is super excited for what we are going to see, as this is one of the most anticipated Marvel films ever. As far as our show, we will have our (possibly) first reactions episode coming out this weekend, giving you plenty of time to watch the movie then come and catch up with us. Depending on what this film leaves us with, we may have a second reactions episode coming out next week to cover the rest of the content if this film is as crazy as we have been told it would be. So with that, get ready for some major content from us and let’s hop into the Multiverse this weekend, since Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, Christine Dinh, Marvel