Rumor: Doctor Strange To Face A Huge Dilemma In His Sequel

Things Could Get Messy

By Culture SlatePublished 3 years ago • 4 min read

Stephen Strange has not always been the master of the mystic arts. Before he was the Sorcerer Supreme, he was a gifted neurosurgeon, which means he had to take the Hippocratic Oath pledging to do no harm. But as the Sorcerer Supreme, he has also vowed to protect reality by whatever means necessary, a vow that could very well mean doing harm against threats to reality.

What could that mean for Doctor Strange? Could this bring an eternal struggle in his upcoming sequel? Quite possibly. But before we look at what that struggle could be, I want to talk about the good doctor in some more detail by looking at his origin movie and his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far.

Stephen Strange, as stated above ,started life in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a brilliant but slightly arrogant neurosurgeon. Doctor Strange was definitely a great surgeon, and we can see that at the start of his movie, when it shows how he can pick and choose his patients and how much of a flashy lifestyle he has between his home, his watches, and his car. As we know, though, tragedy was soon to strike, as Stephen was involved in a horrific crash that robbed him of the use of his hands, effectively ending his surgical career.

The loss of the use of his hands really took its toll on Doctor Strange, as he spiraled into depression, looking for some way to help him regain the use of his hands, all to no avail until he heard of a place that may be able to help him. However, as we all know, this was not really the place he was looking for or the help he wanted. It did, however, end up being exactly what he needed, as he learned the mystic arts and became the Doctor Strange we all know.

In typical Stephen Strange fashion, however, he was not content with just learning the mystic arts or with even learning this at the pace he was being taught by the Ancient One and her followers. Stephen had to try and teach himself more advanced techniques, which inevitably caused issues. However, this did accelerate his rise to become the new Sorcerer Supreme and eventually saw him overcome the being Dormammu and save the day. Throughout this first movie, Doctor Strange went from arrogant and selfish to being slightly less self involved and willing to help humanity but his journey was not complete.

The next time we saw the Sorcerer Supreme in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was in Thor: Ragnarok. In this brief appearance, we saw that he was now full focused on helping the world and taking on any threats as he intercepted Loki immediately on his return to Earth. However, his people skills were still somewhat lacking, but were definitely an improvement on where they were in his first outing.

After his appearance in Ragnarok, the next time we saw him was in Avengers: Infinity War, where his character was almost fully fleshed out. His people skills were significantly better albeit still with a touch of arrogance. However, he was now fully focused on protecting reality no matter the cost, as evidenced by the fact that at the start of the movie, he would neither give up nor destroy the Eye of Agamotto. Of course, in the end, he did give this up, but only after he learned that doing so would give himself and the Avengers the best possible shot at realizing the one single future in which they saved all of reality. Essentially, every move Strange made in Infinity War was in service of saving reality as we know it.

So that brings us to what I was talking about earlier, given that we know Wanda Maximoff will be in the Doctor Strange sequel, what will this mean? As we have seen in WandaVision, the Scarlet Witch was definitely a threat to reality, and this could put her at odds with the Sorcerer Supreme, which in turn would lead to some internal turmoil for Doctor Strange. How do you deal with a threat that powerful? The most obvious option would be to kill her, but this goes against the moral code Strange has had since he was a medical doctor. However, it would fall right in the "defend reality at all costs" wheelhouse.

So what is a magical doctor to do? Only time will tell, I suppose. But I cannot wait to see how this plays out in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Written By Ross McKechnie

Sources: The Cosmic Circus

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