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.
After the release, the director revealed that about 40 minutes of the film was chopped off and I was infuriated by this as to why? Were more shows in a day worth the underwhelming result? Well, what can we do. The film also promised us a taste from horror genre. Well, we got something to say the least. However, in a recent interview the film’s writer Michael Waldron revealed an alternate end to the film that appears to be more Sinister than the one we got. So what was it?
Doctor Strange 2 Alternate Ending – Strange to be Trapped?
Multiverse of Madness ended with a seemingly happy end we saw Strange had successfully saved America Chavez, stopped the Scarlet Witch and didn’t bear any ramifications for his actions like dreamwalking a corpse or using the Darkhold. Although, at the very last second it seems like he has to bear some consequences as he screams while walking and a third eye pops on his forehead like Sinister Strange. This is the toll the Darkhold has taken on him.
While this is the film’s ending there is a post credit scene that takes this ahead. In the post credit scene Strange meets Clea played Charlize Theron who tears the reality and asks him to accompany her to save the Multiverse. The dimension appears to be Dormamu’s Dark Dimension we last saw in Doctor Strange. This makes sense as Clea is Dormamu’s niece. Although in this scene Strange appears to be okay with his third eye like he has realized its a weapon more than a curse.
However, according to the writer of the film, the original ending something looked like, “Strange gets trapped in that [incursion] universe … and then [Sinister Strange] turns around, and the third eye opens.” This was the audio commentary that released with the film but in a recent interview he further said, “That’s the bill coming due. As Wong says, ‘You used the Darkhold to possess your own corpse.’ Surely, there must be some fallout, It was a little bit of a throwback to [director Sam Raimi’s] old Evil Dead, and that groaner of an ending, or it’s just like, ‘Oh my God, things turned out bad in the end.’ So, yeah. We’ll see what all that means for Stephen.
He added, “The Multiverse has forced a mirror up in front of his face, and has made him do some self-reflecting, that I think he’s refused to ever do, Even when he got into that initial [car] accident [in Doctor Strange], instead of really thinking about who he was, instead he went and just became the most powerful sorcerer alive. This is a guy who doesn’t want to go to therapy. I think now, there’s been some forced self-reflection over the course of this adventure, and I think he’s probably more capable than ever at working as part of a team.”
The Sam Raimi film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/the Scarlet Witch, Benedict Wong as Sorcerer Supreme Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo, Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, and Charlize Theron as Clea.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently streaming on Disney+ and has released for 4K UHD Blu-ray and DVD.
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