When Marvel Studios announced plans to expand the MCU on television through Disney+, it soon became clear that the streaming shows would be essential viewing for those hoping to follow what's happening in theaters. With Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it appears prior knowledge of WandaVision, Loki, and possibly even What If...? will be necessary to fully understand what's happening.
Loki introduced us to the idea of the Multiverse and "Variants," and writer Michael Waldron penned both that series and the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel. According to this movie's producer, Richie Palmer, this helped streamline the former Sorcerer Supreme's next solo adventure.
"It was really exciting. We found that we didn't need to spend a lot of time recapping the rules; we felt the audience would get a lot of that by now," he explains in D23 Magazine (via The Direct). "With Michael, we could jump into telling a good story within what's already been established."
"Michael's strength is the character stuff. As you saw in Loki, all the best moments involved the characters against the backdrop of those alternate timelines. It's kind of like that in our movie, too. Michael's script brought a lot of heart to sci-fi concepts such as the Multiverse."
Clearly, Loki was meant to familiarise us all with the idea of multiple realities and how Sir Patrick Stewart, for example, will make his return as a Professor X Variant. Hopefully, casual moviegoers won't struggle too much, as an overreliance on these Disney+ TV shows to fill in the gaps could leave fans who aren't quite so tuned into everything feeling somewhat alienated by these ambitious MCU plans.
We're definitely excited to see how Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness builds on Loki, though, and it's clear this shared world is about to get even bigger as it embraces the Multiverse.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives in theaters on May 6!
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