Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness culminates with The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) being shown the error of her ways and burying herself in the rubble of Mount Wundagore. The Master of the Mystic Arts (Benedict Cumberbatch), having possessed his own Variant's corpse in order to reach America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), returns to his Sanctum Santorum before deciding to take a little stroll down Bleeker Street.
Strange is smiling away, and finally seems truly happy... until he keels over in the middle of the road and screams in agony as a third eye opens in his forehead.
Although the mid-credits scene (more on that later) appeared to tell a different story, this moment seemed to have sinister connotations, and screenwriter Michael Waldron has now confirmed that the emergence of this eye was supposed to signify Strange's past decisions catching up to him.
"I felt like we had a happy ending. We were like, like, 'Gee, you know, for a movie where a lot of bad shit happens, we got kind of a happy ending here,'" Waldron explains to Rolling Stone. "We really wrapped it up and that didn’t quite seem right. We kept thinking about what Mordo warned Strange in the first movie: 'The bill comes due.' It’s like Wong says, 'You possessed your own corpse.' Like, is this guy ever going to face any consequences? And it just felt like a great nod to horror movies where there’s that final twist."
It was (or would have been) a hell of a cliffhanger, but we see Strange walking down the street (again) just a few minutes later in the mid-credits scene, only this time he's greeted by Clea (Charlize Theron) who enlists him to help with an incursion he caused. Before the pair leap into the Dark Dimension, that eye opens up again, suggesting that the former Sorcerer Supreme has found a way to gain control over its evil influence.
These scenes simply don't work very well together, and we wouldn't be surprised to learn that the second sequence was a studio-mandated addition to end the sequel on a more positive note.
What did you guys make of the conclusion of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?
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