Marvel Cinematic Universe is arguably the biggest franchise in the world, after inception in 2008, it simply grew bigger and bigger. Marvel movies have these annoying habits of stuffing their films with a million references, nods, tributes or everything altogether. Their latest film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has so many multiversal references. The much awaited sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange arrived to in 2022. While the sequel was successful on a box office level, many fans including myself found Doctor Strange 2 to be underwhelming. I think the true culprit of the film was its marketing that promised us a mind bending rather than a simple MCU story. I mean for a film titled Multiverse of Madness, the film majorly takes place only in 3-4 universes.
The other universes only popped up in the 39 second long sequence at the start of the film. The film had faced some creative differences with Scott Derrickson quitting the project as he had a much darker version in mind. Then Sam Raimi took over the reigns and gave us the film we have today. Well the fans were regardless looking out for hidden details in the film. Many have pointed out that there was a reference or a tribute to the character of Princess Xena in the film and in a recent statement, Sam Raimi might’ve confirmed it.
Princess Xena in Doctor Strange 2
Sam Raimi himself is a fan of adding hidden details and references. The proof of that lies in him casting Bruce Campbell, his Evil Dead star and a very good friend. Bruce had also appeared in the Raimi directed Spider-Man films in different cameos. However, those cameos were supposed to lead to a major storyline in Spider-Man 4 as Bruce would reveal himself as Mysterio. Alas, that couldn’t happen as Sony cancelled the film and rebooted the series.
Now, Sam Raimi has confirmed another subtle tribute that in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that dates back to the 90s. Princess Xena is a Marvel character that first featured in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys in the issue 55 in 1997 and 1998. The character was often criticized to be a copy of DC’s Wonder Woman. Although it seems like the nod wasn’t really to this character rather but the show that the character had in the 90s.
The show was called Xena: Warrior Princess. Sam Raimi even has a personal connection to this show as his brother Ted Raimi acted in the show as Joxer. The show ran for 6 seasons over the course of 6 years and was cancelled in 2001. The show had decent ratings. The scene in Multiverse of Madness where Dr. Strange is in Earth 838 and in the Baxter Foundation Facility, there is a statue in the facility. That statue was under a lot of speculation as to who is it? Well, Sam Raimi confirmed it was indeed Princess Xena. Does that mean she exists there?
Now Lucy Lawless, the actor who portrayed the character in the show tweeted seconding Raimi’s statement.
OHMIGOSH. Then this happened! @DrStrange #Xena #homeWithCovid #Surprise! pic.twitter.com/Wyypc5Uo8e
— Lucy Lawless (@RealLucyLawless) June 30, 2022
We don’t know what this means for the MCU. As we’re not aware where whether we’ll revisit Earth 838 in the future or not. But a statue in the middle of the Baxter Foundation which basically is the Avengers Tower in that reality means that she does exist in that universe or at the least she used to exist and then died fighting a threat or something. Like Strange himself in that reality.
Let me know what do you think about this Easter egg in Multiverse of Madness and are you excited to see Princess Xena in the MCU, if that happens. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently streaming on Disney+.
If you have any questions regarding Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay tuned. As usual, like, subscribe and share our articles as we here are trying to build a community of people High on Cinema!
