In the latest trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a familiar voice could be heard suggesting "We should tell him the truth." The assumption among fans is that a version of the Illuminati made up of Variants who have assembled to protect the Multiverse captured Strange and that it was Sir Patrick Stewart's Professor X who wanted to tell Stephen more about what's going on.
During a recent interview with Empire Online, the movie's producer, Richie Palmer, was quick to point out that just because we think we know who that is...well, there could still be some surprises.
"I’ll quote the first X-Men movie and say, 'Are you sure you saw what you saw?'" he said with a laugh. "There are infinite versions of these characters, and just because you may have heard something familiar doesn’t mean it’s someone you have seen before."
So, as expected, this won't be the Charles Xavier we saw in movies like X-Men, X-Men: Day of Future Past, and Logan. As for the rest of this supposed Illuminati, there are plenty of rumours about who the other members could be. Palmer, however, seemed to hint that the group we see in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness won't necessarily be that group as there may be future plans for them.
"As you saw in Spider-Man: No Way Home, some rumors ended up being true, some did not," the producer notes. "I would love to see Tony again, but some rumours are just rumours. I will say that I love the Illuminati. But if we ever introduce the Illuminati in the future, it might be more MCU-driven and have some more ties to our characters in the MCU, versus just replicating what’s in the comics."
Intriguing, eh? In the comic books, the Illuminati was a group of characters in the Marvel Universe who teamed up to pull the strings from the shadows and do what they must to keep Earth safe. There's definitely room for a group like that in the MCU, but a version that protects the entire Multiverse might make more sense given how this shared world appears to be expanding now.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is set to be released in theaters on May 6, later this year!