Doctor Strange 2: The gift and curse of the Super Bowl trailer

The Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Super Bowl trailer revealed a lot to talk about.

This writer will say it now: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will be the movie of the year. Not comic book movie of the year; the movie of the year.

This is the film where the people in charge of awards ceremonies will no longer be able to deny the greatness they’re watching. At least that should be the case. Yes, this writer got all of that from the Super Bowl trailer.

There was so much right about the trailer. Seeing that America Chavez is set to be a crucial part of the movie means she’s in the future plans for Marvel Studios. Wanda Maximoff is back after WandaVision, still the Scarlet Witch, and more focused than ever. And it looks like we may have seen Mount Wundagore.

However, for all of the good, this writer has some questions.

Too many villains in Doctor Strange 2?

What do Baron Mordo, Shuma-Gorath, what looked like Knull, and the Supreme Doctor Strange from What If…? all have in common? They were all in the trailer. Those are a lot of powerful villains. Granted, the movie could begin with Doctor Strange defeating Shuma-Gorath and perhaps the character will not be a major antagonist, freeing up the landscape for somebody else. If that’s the case, though, it would be a waste of an incredible villain, which leads to the query on whether or not there are too many villains in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Spider-Man: No Way Home did the impossible. It relied on a pretty extensive catalog of villains and gave them all some sort of memorable moment. That’s not something that’s done well often. Can Doctor Strange 2 do the same?

If Doctor Strange has to go up against Baron Mordo, perhaps the TVA for messing up the time-stream, and who knows what else, that may be too much. Hopefully, that’s not the case here.

What’s real and what’s not?

While Doctor Strange is being escorted by what appear to be Ultron bots, a voice says, “We should tell him the truth.” The mysterious voice sounds very familiar. It sounds just like Sir Patrick Stewart. Why him? Because he was Charles Xavier in the 20th Century Fox X-Men franchise.

That’s not all, though. The room was set up like a version of Marvel Comics’ Illuminati. In the source material, the Illuminati is a group consisting of multiple Marvel heroes, including Charles Xavier and Doctor Strange. Now, in the trailer, we see empty seats as well, implying more members of the team exist in the MCU’s multiverse too. One of them may belong to a version of Tony Stark since those bots were almost definitely his creation.

There’s one thing you can always count on when it comes to Marvel Studios movies: Some things in the trailers won’t be what they appear. For example, we saw the Hulk in Wakanda during the trailers for Avengers: Infinity War only to discover he wasn’t actually involved in that battle during the film. We could be getting something similar here to throw us off the scent.

There was a figure reminiscent of an Iron Man from his days post Marvel AXIS  as the Superior Iron Man. But, again, this could be a misdirection. Or, like Spider-Man: No Way Home, the worst kept secret.

Wanda was right

"“You break the rules and become a hero. I do it, and become the enemy.” – Wanda Maximoff"

The movie may be named after the Sorcerer Supreme, but Wanda is going to steal the show. The few times that we saw the Scarlet Witch in the trailer, she looked calm and powerful. Plus, she gave everyone something to think about. Why was Stephen Strange exempt from ridicule when he messed with the multiverse when she was not after the Westview incident? This is a question that has to be answered. That said, did we need to know that angle?

Everything in this trailer was fantastic. That’s including Wanda calling out Doctor Strange for his hypocrisy. However, was this something that could have waited for a later trailer? Better yet, maybe save it for the movie? Who knows. Maybe that’s an alternate reality version of Wanda Maximoff. One from a world in which she was never forgiven for House of M. Regardless, this seemed like a moment that was released too soon, perhaps spoiling that potential and rumored villainous story for her. That being said, it was pretty exciting to hear her say it.

What do you think, readers? Was this the greatest trailer ever? Are we really going to see the Illuminati and the Superior Iron Man? Let us know in the comments below.