Thanks to some more concept art from the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - The Art of the Movie book (via The Direct), we have several alternate character designs for Clea.
We assume most of these concepts were being worked on before Charlize Theron was cast in the role, as very few of them actually resemble the Academy Award-winning actress. Some of these designs are very different to the version of Clea we saw in the movie, and, based on what we see here, Marvel Studios was toying with the idea of putting the character in several pretty messed-up looking outfits.
Theron made her MCU debut as Clea in the seque's post-credits scene. The character only makes a brief appearance and isn't actually named, but after convincing the Master of the Mystic Arts (Benedict Cumberbatch) to accompany her to the Dark Dimension in order to fix an Incursion he caused, it seems clear that Marvel Studios has big plans in place for the niece of the Dread Dormammu.
"We were really excited to introduce Clea," said writer Michael Waldron in a 2022 interview. "Getting Charlize Theron to play that character, holy crap! In the comics, Clea is Doctor Strange’s great love so to speak. The alternate Christine Palmer, as she says goodbye to our Doctor Strange, tells him to face his fears, to be willing to love someone else and to face that fear connecting with someone else."
"It felt like the perfect time to finally introduce this very pivotal character in Doctor Strange's canon," he continued. "Strange went to the Multiverse and tampered with it as much as you probably possibly could. I don’t think it’s any surprise per the rules that Reed [Richards] laid out that he caused an Incursion. So now there’s an oncoming collision of universes. But what does that mean for the MCU? We’ll find out. But we've got a semi-corrupted Doctor Strange and Clea on the case! So it's going to be a lot of fun."
Check out the artwork at the links below.
We have no idea when we'll see Theron as Clea in the MCU again, but a third Doctor Strange movie is said to be in the works, and she may also show up in Avengers: Secret Wars.