Now that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has come and gone, speculation regarding the inevitable threequel are about to spread like wildfire. Well, I’m here to deliver the likely possibilities, and how I believe the movie will transpire. SPOILERS FOR Multiverse of Madness WILL FOLLOW!
The Doctor Strange sequel ended on a cliffhanger, which was seemingly resolved in the mid-credits scene which setup another cliffhanger. The movie ends with Stephen Strange walking out of the Sanctum Sanctorum, only to breakdown in the middle of the street screaming as he forms a third-eye. His newfound deformity signifies corruption, and was teased by Sinister Strange earlier on in the movie. When a sorcerer or a sorceress dabbles in dark/forbidden magic, they’ll form an augmentation much like the third-eye or even Wanda’s black fingertips after she read, and obviously used, the Darkhold. With Strange dream-hopping in the climax of the movie, he was using dark magic directly from the Darkhold, so I figured as much would happen to him one way or another.
image via: Marvel Studios
Things start to get interesting shortly thereafter as a mysterious sorceress comes out of a ripple in thin air, and tells Strange to come with her as he’s, “setoff an incursion.” This sorceress is none-other than Clea, who just so happens to be Strange’s wife in the comics, as well as Dormammu’s niece. Time will tell as to how she will come into play in the MCU, but if Marvel Studios plans on following her origin from the comics, Clea will be ordered by the ruler of the Dark Dimension to kill Strange. After her uncle gives her these orders, she sets up Strange but in the process the two ended up falling in love after she deceives Dormammu. The two become one of premiere power couples in Marvel Comics, and eventually get married.
Clea was played by three-time Oscar nominee for Best Actress, Charlize Theron, and this was a VERY nice surprise! Rumors swirled for three-years about who could make up the Illuminati in the sequel, as well as countless other Marvel characters to members of the X-Men, and to other Fantastic Four members besides Reed Richards. Clea seemed to be forgotten about and fell between the cracks of Marvel fans’ minds, but my main number one character cameo that I was hoping for, was Clea.
Image via: MCUExchange
Clea is a fascinating character in the comics as she is the daughter of Prince Orini (whose the son of Olnar, the former ruler of the Dark Dimension) and the Faltine fugitive Umar (sister of Dormammu). Clea's birth was very traumatic to Umar and the experience scarred her even more when she learned she had lost the ability to revert to her Faltinian form (extra-dimensional energy beings born from pure Magic.) She abandoned Clea with Orini and became violent, picking a conflict with her brother. In her weakened state, however, she was defeated by Dormammu and banished to another realm. Clea always had a good heart, but due to her love for her father, and fear of her uncle Dormammu, she was raised as a villain… which was short-lived as Strange fully unlocked the superhero within her.
Clea is an immensely powerful sorceress whose powers rival that of both Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch. Her Faltinian heritage gives her other abilities on top of her magic, such as a minor healing factor, and enhanced strength. Doctor Strange and Clea have been a couple for nearly 60-years now in the comics, so getting this relationship formed in the MCU will be great to see moving forward.
Image via: Marvel Comics
As for the villain, I’d like for it to be Nightmare if not Dormammu, who was also a huge missed opportunity in The Multiverse of Madness. Nightmare controls one of the Splinter Realms known as the Nightmare Realm, within the Dream Dimension. He’s one of the most powerful characters in all of Marvel Comics, as he’s very similar to Freddy Krueger but instead of invading peoples’ dreams and killing them, Nightmare will invade their dream, feed off of their deepest fear, trap them in a nightmare-state within their mind, and they become a slave to him. With Strange and Wanda using dream-hopping multiple times throughout the sequel, it’s possible that Nightmare became aware of this and it could also make him aware of earth-616 (as the Christine Palmer variant revealed was the name of Strange’s earth within the multiverse.)
Nightmare has a legion of Dream Demons by his side, people and creatures that he enslaves through their dreams, and can also hop between dimensions, and at times, even universes within the multiverse. Seeing how Clea came out of a portal in seemingly the Dark Dimension, it’s likely that Dormammu will be the main villain in the third film, but that doesn’t mean that Nightmare can’t pop-up as well. We’ve seen in the past how Marvel Studios/Disney likes to have multiple villains in a singular movie at times, and we saw that in The Multiverse of Madness as well as 2016’s Doctor Strange with Dormammu and Kaecilius.
Image via: Marvel Comics
The Multiverse of Madness’ mid-credits scene sets the stage for what most likely happen in Doctor Strange 3. As Clea explains to Strange, Doctor Strange's actions in the sequel created an incursion, that is, two universes might’ve collided. In Marvel Comics’ second "Secret Wars" event from 2015, after the first incursion happened, other universes rushed in to fill the vacuum left by the universe that had ceased to exist. This created a chain reaction of incursions that led to the entire multiverse collapsing in on itself. It's possible that this is what Clea has sought out Doctor Strange to help her stop. There’s also the six-year question of what Mordo has been up to since he renounced his ties to Kamar-Taj, and set out to “kill all sorcerers.” That being said, it's entirely possible that the events of the past few movies may have softened his stance on things and he could team-up with Strange to stop the incursion.
This could also be where Superior Iron Man comes into play as his prime storyline in the comics, and one of his earlier appearance actually, was in 2015’s “Secret Wars.” Having him team-up with Strange and Clea to help save his world would be a pretty interesting notion to set-fourth in the MCU. While Superior Iron Man is a villain in the comics, I’m not sure that Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios will want him to be a villain due to his extreme popularity from the MCU and huge following of newfound fans who might not be too keen about an evil version of Tony Stark. Alas, time will tell though, but I for one would be in complete support of Tom Cruise playing a villainous version of the character with Marvel Studios giving him a script, and just telling him to be as evil and as sinister as we all know Cruise can be.
The third film has yet to be officially confirmed, but with Benedict Cumberbatch saying on Friday that he, “could see himself playing Doctor Strange for at least another decade,” it’s only inevitable.