Explaining all the Easter eggs in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness
Here's what you need to know about how Earth-616, that third eye, and much more fit into the mythology of the MCU
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers.
By now audiences have come to realize that the intense interconnectedness of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of its most compelling features, with each new film revealing a portion of an unfolding tapestry. Even more than most MCU entries, Doctor Strange In the Multiverse Of Madness is a nexus for the latest phase of the superhero franchise, with characters, plotlines, backstories and other continuity tendrils stretching into multiple Marvel films and TV shows. It’s also packed with meta nods to superhero film continuities outside the MCU, in-jokes referencing behind-the-scenes developments, and Easter eggs culled from decades of comics lore.
For those who may have felt excluded by peals of applause at certain lines or confused by certain character motivations, The A.V. Club has assembled an explainer behind the key details in Stephen Strange’s latest mystical adventure. Whether you’re a complete newcomer to the multiverse, a casual fan, or an MCU die-hard puzzled by a deep-cut reference, this breakdown offers all the knowledge necessary to navigate multiple realities as easily as America Chavez.
The Multiverse
Given how the story kicks off, in the thick of an action-packed chase with Doctor Strange and America Chavez attempting to escape a supernatural pursuer in the extra-dimensional space between parallel universes, you might think you’ve missed something from the get-go.
But what you need to know about the multiverse was first set out in the Disney+ series Loki (also written by this film’s co-screenwriter Michael Waldron), which lays down many of the alt-universe ground rules. These universes offer both nearly identical and dramatically different variations of any character that audiences may have encountered in the MCU, from a female Loki to an alligator Loki.
The concept was further explored in the Disney+ animated anthology, What If…?, with alternate history scenarios featuring various MCU stars, including a variant Strange who’s obsessed with preventing the tragic death of his true love, Christine Palmer.
Spider-Man: No Way Home brought the multiverse to the big screen—including the catastrophic dangers posed when two or more universes begin to bleed together. That’s what happened when Spider-Man, desperate to wipe away all public knowledge of his secret identity as Peter Parker, accidentally corrupted Strange’s spell, causing several enemies of alt-universe wall-crawlers to cross over into the central MCU, followed a pair of Spider-Men (Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield) from non-Disney-owned films. That clever twist solidified the notion that characters and actors from films outside the MCU could make appearances via multiversal magic.
If you’ve seen Strange’s appearances in his debut film, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, you’re up to speed with Stephen. America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) and her multiverse-hopping power debuted in Marvel’s comic book pages back in 2011, but this is her first appearance in the MCU.
Early Easter Eggs
Audiences met alt-Doctor Stranges in What If…?, and there are a couple of tip-offs that the cold-open Strange in Multiverse isn’t the one they know from past MCU films: the distinctive white streaks in his hair site much higher up than his typically silver temples, and he’s wearing a costume inspired by the sleek, cape-less black-and-red ensemble that the Doc sported—and the ponytail he rocked—in the comic books circa 2011.
The Book of the Vishanti is also a reference from the comics, a millennia-old white-magic tome introduced by Doctor Strange creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko back in 1963. Here it serves as a “good” counterpart to the evil Darkhold, which we’ll explore in a moment.
Shuma Gorath
If a handful of people around you in the theater gasped in recognition when Strange made the giant, one-eyed, multi-tentacled creature pursuing America in Manhattan visible, that’s because they’re familiar with the Lovecraftian creature’s comic book antecedent, Shuma Gorath, an ancient interdimensional conqueror that’s been battling Strange on and off in the comics since his debut in 1972, where the sentient demon was decidedly even more evil.
The Scarlet Witch
The film wastes little time on backstory for Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), assuming the audience was among the many viewers of Disney+’s debut series WandaVision, not to mention her earlier MCU appearances, first as an adversary, and later as a member of the Avengers.
Wanda fell in love with her synthezoid teammate Vision, and in Infinity War she was forced to end his life to keep his Mind Stone out of the hands of Thanos—an ultimately futile sacrifice, as she points out here. In WandaVision it’s revealed that she used her increasingly powerful reality-altering abilities to create Westview, a seemingly utopian world styled after the television sitcoms where she lived happily with a revived (kinda) Vision and their twin sons—who she essentially created out of thin air. They live happily until Wanda discovers she’s being manipulated by witchy Agatha Harkness, who tries to steal her chaos magic. When Wanda abandons her soothing fantasy world to free the residents trapped in Westview, she sacrifices her “family” in the process.
When we last saw Wanda, she had claimed the full power of the Scarlet Witch, the long-prophesied supernatural being with power that exceeds even the Sorcerer Supreme (that title was once held by Strange, but was passed to Wong during his five-year absence after Thanos’ “blip”). That’s also when she began studying the pages of the Darkhold, a sinister book of spells that threatens to corrupt and consume those who seek to harness its mystic powers—as we soon learn here that is has with Wanda.
The Darkhold was first introduced in the comics in Werewolf By Night in 1972 and has been featured in countless supernatural tales over the decades; the MCU version first appeared in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, though the canonical connection of that series has yet to be determined. Agatha Harkness used it to evade detection while posing as Wanda’s friend and neighbor in Westview.
This film offers a plethora of overt and subtle ties to WandaVision, beginning with composer Danny Elfman’s slightly spookier take on the TV show’s sprightly theme song. In the alternate universe that drives Wanda’s dreams, the look and design of Wanda’s home remains consistent, and Wanda’s sons Tommy and Billy are played by the same young actors from the series. Tellingly, when Wanda reveals herself as the Scarlet Witch, her fingertips are blackened by the use of chaos magic, just as Agatha’s had been.
In keeping with the series’ TV theme, the television in Wanda’s home is nearly always on; rather than sitcoms, it plays vintage Disney cartoons.
Earth-616
Those scattered audience whoops in the theater when the variant Christine informs Strange that the mainstream MCU he inhabits has been designated “616” were from fans who’ve long waited for the comic book lingo to enter the films. The term, conceived by British writer Dave Thorpe, originated in a 1983 issue of a Marvel UK title starring Captain Britain. It was written by then-emerging comic book legend Alan Moore, with 616 cited as the numerical multiverse distinction for the Earth that all of the major Marvel characters hail from. 616 references gradually began to appear in Marvel’s U.S. comics, and the designation became popular with die-hard fans.
The Illuminati
The alternate universe that Strange and America flee to is chock full of clever references from the comics, films and even behind-the-scenes ephemera. First is the concept of the Illuminati itself, not to be confused with Beyonce, but a secret braintrust of Marvel heroes who meet clandestinely to share information and influence. Introduced in the comics in 2005 but with a history dating back to the beginnings of the Marvel Universe, the group consisted of Strange, Iron Man, Professor X, Atlantis’ Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Inhumans’ Black Bolt and the Fantastic Four’s leader Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards.
Captain Carter
In Multiverse, perhaps because Namor’s rights are tied up at another studio (and for a welcome sense of inclusivity), the Illuminati’s membership is expanded to include Captain Carter, an alt-universe incarnation of Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), the paramour of Steve Rogers/Captain America. In her universe, the S.H.I.E.L.D. founder and headliner of the TV series Agent Carter took the super-soldier serum herself; making her live-action debut, a version of Captain Carter was previously introduced in animated form in What If…?
Captain Marvel
Also joining the group is Captain Marvel, here played by another character from that 2019 film, Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch). She’s the best friend of 616 Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers and founder of the extraterrestrial watchdog group S.W.O.R.D., She also happens to be the mother of Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), the S.W.O.R.D. agent who infiltrated Westview during Wanda’s takeover and gained energy powers. Both Rambeaus are expected to appear alongside Carol in the upcoming Marvels film. In a hat-tip to the comics, the green-and-white color scheme of Maria’s armor evokes the uniform of the original Captain Marvel, Kree solider Mar-Vell, when he first appeared in 1967.
Mordo
Taking the seat held by late Doctor Strange variant is an alt-universe Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who appeared as Strange’s mystical rival for the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme in the first Doctor Strange film.
Ultron
Mordo’s robotic phalanx is a variant of the Iron Legion, the team of A.I. drones that the MCU’s Tony Stark once conceived to protect the world in place of the Avengers until the program was corrupted and became Ultron. Also note that Wanda beheads one of the drones with cathartic glee, a justifiable sensation after Avengers: Age Of Ultron, in which Ultron duped her into serving him, decimated her native Sokovia and caused the death of her twin brother Pietro.
Black Bolt
Actor Anson Mount played Black Bolt, whose merest whisper can level a mountain, in Marvel’s quickly cancelled TV series The Inhumans. His casting here is a bit of multiversal fun, and this time he gets to appear in a more comics-accurate costume, including his tuning forked-cowl and glider batwings.
Mr. Fantastic
Perhaps the most shocking—and smile-inducing—appearance among the Illuminati is John Krasinski’s inclusion as Reed Richards. Fans have clamored loud and long for him to be cast as Mr. Fantastic in a planned Fantastic Four film along with his wife Emily Blunt as the Invisible Woman, Sue Storm. Whether Krasinski’s alt-Reed proves to be a dead ringer for the stretchable hero of the FF film to follow or simply a bearded multiverse variant remains to be seen, but his appearance serves an extra-extra level of MCU minutiae: he was also one of the top candidates to play Captain America before Chris Evans landed the role.
Professor X
After much speculation in the months preceding the release of the film, Patrick Stewart’s return to the role of telepathic mutant leader Professor Charles Xavier, which he made iconic in a string of X-Men films from 2000 to 2017, came as little surprise, but still delivered plenty of delight. With Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Marvel Studios now has full control of the X-Men franchise, and Stewart’s casting was both a terrific multiverse twist and a great segue for the next incarnation of the super-popular mutant team in the MCU—whatever that may be.
Xavier’s presence also evokes Wanda’s comic book origins as an X-Men antagonist, while also serving up strong parallels to the famed “Dark Phoenix” saga and Wanda’s own mutant-eliminating comic-book turn to the dark side in the “House of M” storyline.
Later, when Prof. X is psychically searching for the altruistic alt-Wanda buried within the Scarlet Witch’s mind, he finds her under the rubble of a destroyed city, evoking her homeland, where she was the only survivor of bomb strike that killed her family. Wanda takes solace in the happy memories of watching TV sitcoms, and images of Wanda and Vision’s wedding video flicker across the screen on a TV in the rubble as Xavier tries to free Wanda.
Even More Easter Eggs
As the plot kicks into an even higher gear, more choice Easter eggs surface, not the least of which is Wundagore Mountain, the isolated, centuries-old citadel where Wanda’s dark destiny was anticipated. In the comics, Wundagore was the half-scientific, half-mystic secret locale where Wanda and her brother Pietro were born, and where later, as members of the Avengers, they battled Chthon, an ancient demon and master of black magic who claimed to have enhanced Wanda’s mutant abilities with genuine witchcraft. Chthon, too, gets a brief shoutout in the film as the author of the Darkhold. In another straight-from-the-comics riff, Strange also reveals the tragic backstory of his sister Donna, which set him on the path to becoming a physician.
The Third Eye
Regarding Strange’s latest mystical acquisition in the film’s closing moments, the Master of the Mystic Arts has frequently employed third-eye symbolism over the decades by using the Eye of Agamatto, which he wears as an amulet, levitating it to his forehead as a conduit for supernatural visions. But in the MCU, the Eye was revealed to be the Time Stone, which has been hidden for safekeeping in the wake of Avengers: Endgame and, as suggested in Loki, is seemingly in the possession of the Time Variance Authority. Here, the third eye appears quite literally as an aftereffect of Strange’s use of the Darkhold to defeat Wanda.
Clea
Any surprise appearance by Charlize Theron is wont to prompt excited gasps, but some Marvel fans were also thrilled by the realization, due to the platinum hair and purple-hued costume, that she is (almost certainly) playing Clea, an inter-dimensional sorceress from the comics and Strange’s longtime disciple, lover and eventual wife. Clea’s mother was Umar of the Dark Dimension, the evil sister of Dormammu, the would-be conqueror defeated by Strange. Though Clea’s relationship with Strange proved rocky, she would for a time equal him as the Sorcerer Supreme of her native realm. In the film, the variant Christine advised Strange to face his fears when it came to relationships, and his line to Clea about not being afraid likely alludes to something more personal than merely joining her in her efforts to repair the Multiverse.