Warning: If you haven't seen Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness yet, major spoilers follow from this point on.
When it was announced that Sam Raimi would be taking over directing duties on Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange sequel, fans hoped that the Evil Dead helmer would bring his signature style and horror sensibilities to the film, and he doesn't disappoint. While it wouldn't be accurate to describe In The Multiverse of Madness as a horror film, it definitely contains some surprisingly creepy - not to mention shockingly violent - moments.
As you may have guessed, The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) is the perpetrator of most of the carnage. Wanda makes it clear to Strange that he doesn't want to see her unreasonable side early on, and she wasn't exaggerating.
When Strange and America Chavez find themselves captured by The Illuminati in an alternate reality, Wanda possesses the body of one of her Multiverse counterparts and launches an all-out assault on their headquarters. After dispatching an army of Ultron sentries, The Scarlet With comes face-to-face with Mr. Fantastic (John Krasinski), Captain Marvel (Lashana Lynch), Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell), and Black Bolt (Anson Mount).
They never stood a chance!
Wanda proceeds to murder every one of the heroes in some pretty disturbing ways. She removes Black Bolt's mouth, causing the top of his head to explode when he tries to speak, before shredding Reed Richards into strips. The Captains put up more of a fight, but Carter is ultimately sliced in half by her own shield, while Marvel is crushed by a falling pillar.
When Wanda reaches Chavez, Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) stands in her way, but even the most powerful mutant on the planet is no match for the Scarlet Witch, who follows him when he enters her mind and manages to snap his neck.
Yeah... The Illuminati don't stick around too long! The nature of the Multiverse means we could see other Variants of these characters down the line, of course, but this was still a somewhat unnervingly brutal end for the team.
We don't know if this is a sign of things to come in The MCU (there's a chance they simply indulged Raimi here), but it's a wonder some of this stuff scraped by the censors.
What did you guys make of this sequence and the movie overall? Check out our review here, and drop us a comment down below.