MCU's Multiverse Missed A Perfect Doctor Strange Variant Opportunity
Warning: Contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Several Doctor Strange variants were shown or referred to in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but the film missed an opportunity to include (or at least reference) a version of Stephen Strange who precedes the MCU itself. Sam Raimi makes his triumphant return to Marvel adaptations in Doctor Strange 2, but in one of his celebrated Spider-Man films, he acknowledges the Master of the Mystic Arts in a throwaway reference. With Raimi’s version of Spider-Man appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home, it’s odd that Doctor Strange 2 didn’t feature or acknowledge the MCU multiverse’s first Stephen Strange.
Despite its lack of an Avengers team (as humorously confirmed in No Way Home), Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movie trilogy exists in a fully populated Marvel universe (Earth-96283), according to easter eggs and ancillary material set in the Raimi Spider-Man continuity. This includes famous Marvel characters who exist outside of the Spider-Man mythos, like Ant-Man, Namor, and Captain America, but Doctor Strange was famously referenced by name in 2004’s Spider-Man 2. While brainstorming a supervillain name for Otto Octavius with Ted Hoffman, J. Jonah Jameson rejects the name Doctor Strange because “it’s taken,” prompting him to settle on Doctor Octopus.
Related: Maguire & Garfield Universes Don't Have Avengers, But DO Have Other Heroes
Both through the various DoctorStrange 2 cameos and plot, the film explores the MCU’s multiverse and includes other iterations of Stephen Strange, so referencing the Spider-Man trilogy’s version of Doctor Strange would have fit the movie well, but this variant was notably absent, despite Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man returning
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