Doctor Strange 2 Sets Up 6 MCU Teams

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Warning: Spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness laid the necessary groundwork for six superhero teams to officially join the MCU. Benedict Cumberbatch’s second solo outing as Doctor Strange greatly expanded the MCU mythos and introduced a number of characters and concepts that Marvel can play around with in the future. Looking at everything that happened, its impact is sure to be felt for years to come.

Since Doctor Strange 2 is a story built around the idea of a multiverse, there was always this expectation that the movie would be Phase 4’s biggest film. Given the scale, it didn’t necessarily matter that it wasn’t Avengers 5 or a different team-up movie. The movie having the freedom to explore various corners of the multiverse meant that Doctor Strange 2 had room to introduce all sorts of characters and worlds that have never been glimpsed before in any other MCU movie or show. For this reason, there was no shortage of theories regarding who the movie might use. Cyclops, Wolverine, Doctor Doom, and Namor were all among the characters believed to be candidates for surprise cameos.

Related: Doctor Strange 2 Is Better On Disney+ Than In Theaters

While many of Doctor Strange 2’s fan theories didn’t pan out, enough were proven true for Marvel to deliver on making the movie a monumental MCU installment with massive implications for what comes next. The MCU debuts of Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, Anson Mount’s Black Bolt, and John Krasinski’s Mr. Fantastic are huge for its future (even if they’re all dead now). Their mere existence on Earth-838 opens the door for the MCU to introduce proper Earth-616 incarnations of these characters in the movies and shows ahead.