6 Pieces Of Marvel Content Worth Watching Before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

After a long wait, made even longer by the numerous delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, fans are now just days away from seeing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on the big screen. Far from being a simple sequel to 2016's Doctor Strange, Multiverse of Madness is set to be an MCU event on the level of Infinity War and Endgame.

While the Multiverse has been explored on the small screen in Loki and What If..?, and the Multiverse of a single character appeared on the big screen in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will be the first big screen exploration of the Multiverse on a larger scale. We'll be reintroduced to old characters, introduced to new characters for the first time, as well as, in some cases, new variants of characters we already know and love. The events of this film are said to set the stage for the MCU for years to come.

With so many characters to keep track of, a bit of pre-movie homework may be needed. Here's all the Marvel content you need to watch before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home

Timeline wise, Peter Parker's multiversal antics in Spider-Man: No Way Home precede the events of Multiverse of Madness by a few months, and have a direct effect on the events of the upcoming film. Early in No Way Home, Peter Parker visits Doctor Strange in the hope of repairing the things that have gone wrong in his life as a result of being exposed as Spider-Man. Strange attempts a spell intended to make the world forget that Peter is Spider-Man, but things go seriously wrong, causing a weakness in the barrier between universes.

It has been speculated that the results of Strange's spell are what bring him under fire from the Multiverse-Guarding Illuminati in Multiverse of Madness. However, since No Way Home's ending erases Doctor Strange's memory of Peter Parker, Strange may not even realise why he is in trouble.

2. WandaVision

WandaVision, set shortly after the events of Avengers: Endgame, follows Wanda Maximoff as she accidentally transforms the town of Westview and it's inhabitants into an idyllic sitcom world. The series starts out locked in the world of the sitcom, it evolves into a character study of Wanda, exploring her past, and her eventual transformation into the Scarlet Witch.

After the dramatic events of the series, Wanda appears to have hidden herself away from the world, until Strange tracks her down seeking help in Multiverse of Madness. Multiple variants of Wanda are set to appear in the film, which will also see a return appearance from Wanda's twin sons, Tommy and Billy. Since the twins are believed to have faded from existence at the end of WandaVision, it is safe to say that MoM's Tommy and Billy are probably variants.

While Multiverse of Madness is a Doctor Strange film, Wanda Maximoff is said to have an almost equal amount of screentime. WandaVision is a must watch in order to understand Wanda's motivations in the film.

3. What If..?

After the events of Loki resulted in the Sacred Timeline splitting to become the multiverse, the MCU's first animated series, What If..?, explored some of these new timelines. As both projects feature multiversal exploration at their core, many fans are expecting some of the characters and scenarios seen in What If..? to pop up in Multiverse of Madness, including Captain Carter, powerful Doctor Strange variant Supreme Strange, and likely even more.

Clocking in at nine episodes running at just over thirty minutes each, What If..? is an easy binge, but for anyone under a time crunch, episodes one, four, eight, and nine hold the most vital Multiverse of Madness related info.

4. Loki ep 1x06, 'For All Time, Always'

For most of the Loki series, the idea of the Multiverse is a big no-no. In fact, it is the job of the Time Variance Authority to remove any variations from the single Sacred Timeline. This process, called pruning, is to be the fate of the variant Loki from Avengers: Endgame, until he is instead recruited by Mobius.

However, things change drastically in the final episode of Loki's first season. Sylvie, another Loki variant, kills He Who Remains, who created the TVA to maintain the Sacred Timeline and avoid a Multiversal War like the one that had once been sparked by his own evil variants. Without He Who Remains's oversight, the threshold is crossed, and the timeline begins to split, giving birth to the Multiverse. According to Kevin Feige, Sylvie's actions made it possible for Strange to mess up his spell in No Way Home, thus leading to the events of Multiverse of Madness.

5. Avengers Infinity War/Endgame

While Tony Stark, Peter Parker, and most of the Guardians of the Galaxy await Thanos's arrival on Titan in Avengers: Infinity War, Doctor Strange is making use of the Time Stone to hopefully find a timeline in which the Avengers triumph over Thanos. In a memorable scene, Strange reveals that he can find only one winning timeline.

The tragic payoff from this scene features in the following film, Avengers: Endgame, when a clearly troubled Strange is unable to reveal whether they have hit on the winning scenario until moments before Tony was due to make his heroic sacrifice. Early reports on Multiverse of Madness suggest that Strange is deeply affected by the events of Infinity War and Endgame, suffering PTSD from all the bad futures he witnessed.

6. Doctor Strange

2016's Doctor Strange follows gifted surgeon Doctor Stephen Strange as he seeks away to restore his hands after suffering nerve damage in a car accident. When medical science fails him, Strange travels to Kamar-Taj to seek answers in the mystic arts. Strange proves to be a surprisingly gifted Sorcerer, and is soon dragged in to the conflict between the people of Kamar-Taj and Kaecilius, a former disciple of Strange's mentor, the Ancient One. Kaecilius aims to bring Dormammu, a powerful and evil entity from the dark dimension, to Earth.

While Multiverse of Madness has less plot links to it's preceding film than other MCU sequels, Doctor Strange is worth revisiting thanks to the background information on characters like Christine Palmer, Baron Mordo, and of course, Doctor Stephen Strange.

Happy binging! Doctor Strange in the Multivere of Madness hits theatres on May 6.