Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: What’s hidden in plain sight in the trailers

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness trailer Easter eggs

As we already know, the second official trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness starring Benedict Cumberbatch dropped the day of this year’s Super Bowl.

Given how much was packed into that one trailer, along with a few other teasers and posters released, it took some time for your humble writer to unpack everything that was in it…and even then, there was still so much left in the trunk.

This certainly wasn’t a trailer you could sit down and watch once and be done with it. And the more I looked it at, the more stuff I found, and the more fascinated I became to see it. Then again, it’s directed by Sam Raimi, the same director who did a trilogy of films about that other superhero created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Spider-Man.

Raimi’s love of the classic era of Marvel certainly appears to be on display in the trailer just as it was in the original Spider-Man trilogy. That also means, along with his penchant for extreme close-ups, dizzying camera movements, and zany nod to horror (you can’t have a Sam Raimi movie without some nod to Evil Dead, after all), there were plenty of potential Marvel-related Easter Eggs, some of which ventured deep into SPOILER territory.

So with the sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange still months away, that gives us more than enough time to examine what the official trailer, along with its teasers, hinted towards. Keep in mind, much of this will be pure conjecture; other portions based on rumor. And we’ll begin our examination by pointing out that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is also…

Multiverse of Madness is a sequel to WandaVision

One thing that is constant throughout these trailers is the appearance of Marvel’s other resident magic-wielding superhero, Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch. Though based on actress Elizabeth Olsen’s performance in the trailer and various teasers, Wanda comes off sounding rather ominous.

Her line about how Stephen is treated as a hero for breaking the rules whereas she’s treated as “the enemy” for breaking the rules and how “unfair” that is, sounds very much like a villainous monologue. The trailer isn’t exactly hiding the fact that Wanda may be the main antagonist of the movie.

If you saw what happened in WandaVision, Wanda’s heel-turn makes complete sense. She tried to create a fantasy life for herself where she and Vision lived in sitcom-inspired wedded bliss with two kids, only for that to fall apart around her. She also got a hold of the Darkhold, which is the book of black magic in the Marvel Universe.

And if you recall the post-credits stinger from that series, then you would also remember that Wanda was studying it and hearing the voice of her twin boys, Billy and Tommy. Oh, and there’s also that prophecy in the Darkhold that Agatha Harkness spoke about to Wanda, how the Scarlet Witch would become more powerful than the Sorcerer Supreme and destroy the world.

All of this indicates that Wanda will use her chaos magic in attempt to break the barriers between universes to try and get her boys back–by any means necessary. The answer to her question to Strange as to why she’s treated like the enemy for breaking the rules while he’s lauded as a hero? Because whereas Strange brakes the rules to save all of reality, Wanda’s doing to ease her own grief and pain at the expense of everyone else. Perhaps Monica Rambeau should’ve tried a wee bit harder not letting Wanda escape at the end of WandaVision instead of letting her go.