Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Weird Cameos

SPOILERS for Doctor Strange 2: Into the Strangerverse

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is out and it’s not bad. I’m not really a huge Strange fan so I don’t really care if they ruin his character or anything. Not that they did, I just don’t really care either way. Wanda actually got to be the villain this time which I really liked. She’s legitimately threatening and has clear and compelling motivations. I also liked that Sam Raimi got to infuse some of his horror filmmaking into the movie. There is some Evil Dead-ass looking shots in this movie, it has way more style to it than your average Marvel flick. Bruce Campbell even got a cameo, and he is delightful as always. It’s kinda cool to have Danny Elfman back doing the music, except that Doctor Strange actually has a pretty consistent theme by Michael Giacchino, (unlike most MCU characters) and it’s barely in this movie, despite it being all over the Giacchino scored Spider-Man: No Way Home. There's a music fight, that should be awesome, but I feel like the music weirdly didn't really sync up with the action. We did however get a little glimpse of the 90’s X-Men animated series theme, which I appreciated because if you’re gonna do dumb pointless fan service, you might as well go all the way.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about the big Illuminate cameo scene that everyone was hyped for. I mostly liked this sequence except for one character that left me kind of puzzled. So, a rundown; we have Chiwetel Ejiofor’s character, Baron Mordo, filling in for parallel universe Strange, who went rogue. Black Bolt, from the Inhumans show. (surprised they actually remembered that one) Lesbian mom Rambeau as Captain Marvel, who presumably got powers instead of Carol Danvers in this universe. Captain Carter (who should be called Captain Britain) from What If/alternate universe, you get it. Our boy, Patrick Stewart/Charles Xavier rocking the goofy hover-chair from the animated series. And lastly Jim from The Office as Reed Richards.

Now this one is very weird to me, because the audience I saw the movie with cheered when he appeared, as if he was a character we’ve seen before. But he isn’t. Now could they just be excited that we’re seeing major Marvel character Mr. Fantastic in the MCU for the first time? Sure. But to me it felt like the movie was banking on the audience being excited about the specific casting of John Krasinski. If you don’t already know, Krasinski has been the popular fan-cast for the character for a few years now, often paired with his real life wife Emily Blunt as the Invisible Woman. This isn’t like a casting rumour either, like how Brie Larson was rumoured to be Captain Marvel long before she was officially cast, or even a fan-theory, which would have to have some amount of evidence to be based off. It’s specifically, just a fan-casting. Based entirely on Krasinski looking kinda like the character, (he’s a white guy) and a few photoshop mock-ups. Now, arguably, this is Marvel setting up the character for the upcoming Fantastic Four movie, kind of like how they first introduced Hawkeye with a cameo in Thor: The First Thor, before he became a major character in future movies. But this doesn’t really feel like that either. Krasinski is a pretty well known actor. (unlike the relatively unknown Jeremy Renner at the time) He was on The Office, the biggest show on Netflix, and directed/starred in the Quiet Place movies which have been very successful. To me, it felt like Marvel was counting on the combined excitement of seeing the character, and seeing John Krasinski. On top of that, I don’t know that it is necessarily set up for future movies. We’re seeing a parallel reality, so there is no guarantee we’ll see any of these versions of these characters again. (Plus they all get brutally murdered by Scarlett Witch, which is amazing.)

Side note: I laughed so hard when the audience cheered at Captain Carter’s “I can do this all day,” followed swiftly by her getting bisected by her own mighty shield.

But back on track, according to a Variety article, Emily Blunt said that she is not even that interested in superhero movies. Now, to be fair, Krasinski could still be Richards even without Emily Blunt. (Heck, he has better chemistry with Jenna Fischer anyways) But I don’t think this cameo sequence confirms anything. We probably won’t see Patrick Stewart again, even when Marvel does eventually get around to doing the X-Men again, mostly due to him being 100 years old. So I think there’s a good chance we won’t see Krasiski again either. And if that’s the case, why not bring back the dude from the original Fantastic Four movies, or even Miles Teller from Fant4stic, just to spice things up. Every other character has appeared in some type of Marvel property which makes them fun to see for fans who have been paying close attention. It’s good fan service. But Krasinski is only fan service for fans who follow the MCU reddit or whatever. It’s weird. These movies are both extremely broad, appealing to everyone and their mothers, as well as extremely niche, scraping the bottom of the barrel for obscure Marvel characters that haven’t gotten a movie yet. So sometimes, I’m not sure what it is exactly I’m supposed to be excited about.

For example in the season finale of Loki, we get the introduction of a character who was eventually confirmed to be Kang the Conquerer, a time traveling Avengers villain. Now they don’t call him by name in the show, it’s only through “things you missed” videos and paying attention to the Ant-Man 3 casting that you would even know that he supposed to be this character. So my question is, are we supposed to be aware of the Ant-Man 3 casting before watching Loki? Are we supposed to be aware that John Krasinski is a popular fan-cast for Reed Richards before seeing Doctor Strange 2?

It’s one thing to put comic book Easter eggs for the hardcore fans, but the MCU is pretty accessible to average non-comic book reading moviegoers. General audiences are completely able to follow every plot point and reference simply by paying attention and watching every movie. It’s one of the great strengths of the franchise; its ability to create brand new Marvel fans. But like, am I really supposed to be excited about casting rumours and fan-photoshops? Do I really have to pay attention to that stuff just to get all the references in upcoming movies? Maybe it’s just me, but that feels like a weird ask for your audience. Like who is even writing these movies at that point? Is it the filmmakers, or the fans?

Also, they should have had Bruce Campbell as Namor, I think that would have been hilarious.