In What If...?'s fourth episode, we visited a reality where Doctor Strange lost Christine Palmer in the crash that destroyed his hands. While the hero's story initially played out the same way as his Earth-616 counterpart, the timeline branched when the hero decided to use the Time Stone to bring back the woman he loved.
Unfortunately, Christine's death is an "Absolute Point" in time that cannot be changed in this universe. Doing so would risk the very fabric of reality itself, but that didn't stop the grieving Strange.
After absorbing dark forces beyond his control, the corrupted Master of the Mystic Arts repeatedly tries to bring Christine back, ultimately dooming his reality. Imprisoned with nothing but his failings to keep him company, "Strange Supreme" is later freed by The Watcher to join his Guardians of the Multiverse.
After being returned to the remains of dimension to watch over Erik Killmonger and Arnim Zola after Infinity Ultron was defeated, the door was clearly left open to him returning...and, as we first mentioned on Toonado.com, that's apparently going to happen in What If...? season 2.
The news comes from a reliable scooper who has also questioned the validity of those recently revealed episode titles. In case it wasn't obvious, they're more akin to premises than what each instalment will actually be called, and it's said the one suggesting we'll see a musical take on WandaVision is reportedly incorrect. With that in mind, we'd take all of those with a pinch of salt until official details are shared by Marvel Studios.
Talking about the Emmy-nominated episode "What if...Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands?" director Bryan Andrews previously said, "Benedict Cumberbatch did an amazing job playing evil Doctor Strange, and that was long before Multiverse of Madness was really getting started."
"The film's creative team] had kernels of ideas, so Kevin [Feige] had them watch our stuff and was like, 'You guys better watch out, cause this shit's good.' And they came out of that meeting just going like, 'Oh my God, what are we gonna do for a movie?' [Laughs] I think they borrowed a lot from what we were trying to do in that episode, which is crazy."
What If...?'s influence on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was obvious, though many fans were disappointed not to get a more direct crossover especially as the live-action movie also featured a similarly twisted take on the Sorcerer Supreme.
Still, we're pleased to hear there are more plans for this particularly Stephen Strange...