Spoiler Alert

The release of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” on Dec. 17 marked the end of a year full of new Marvel movies and TV shows. 

After growing used to new content being released several times a month for an entire year, waiting five months for the release of “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” on May 6 feels like utter agony. 

Luckily, Marvel has not left fans completely in the dark as the first trailer for the movie premiered as an end-credit scene after “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” and Sunday, Feb. 13, a second trailer left fans, including me, shaken.

The original “Doctor Strange” movie followed Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), a renowned surgeon, as he dealt with a car crash and the loss of function of his hands. As he sought solutions beyond western medicine, Strange discovered Kamar-Taj where he practiced magic and came to be the protector of the magic sanctum in New York.

Recently, however, the concept of the multiverse was introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), providing alternative timelines and realities in the animated series “What If…?” 

The concept is continued in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” as the description of the movie tells of a multiversal threat, and the trailer leaves fans with haunting images wondering who exactly is the villain in the movie.

The trailer for this movie directed by Sam Raimi includes popular returning characters, such as Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), Wong (Benedict Wong), Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) and Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), but also leads viewers to make assumptions about who may be starring in the film through vague camera angles and fast-action sequences.

We come face to face with characters only introduced in Marvel’s TV shows, such as Sinister Strange, a morally questionable monstrous version of Stephen Strange who destroyed his own world and was left protecting a pocket universe for all eternity.

So if you are someone who thought they could continue fully understanding new Marvel movie releases without watching the TV shows and newer content, I would strongly recommend getting caught up as soon as possible.

After “Spider-Man: No Way Home” proved that Marvel was willing to include characters and actors from older films such as both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, fans anxiously await to see who will be included in this next installment to the MCU.

It also is safe to say that, even though Marvel is owned by Disney, they continue to pull further and further away from a child-friendly focus as clips from the trailer show what appear to be decomposing zombie versions of characters, a nod to Episode 5: “What if… Zombies?!” of “What If…?”, and other violent images.

The multiverse is a complicated topic and is still heavily debated by scientists today, so I will be fascinated to see how Marvel continues this idea in a way that is geared toward their general public audience.