Marvel’s Doctor Strange 2 or as the movie has been named Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has been in the news ever since it was announced and it most definitely should be. Doctor Strange 2 without doubt is MCU’s most anticipated film at the moment. Every development about Doctor Strange 2 is being closely monitored by fans and Marvel enthusiasts. That being said, Marvel too is on its toes to keep everything properly closed so that no information is leaked and the mystery of Doctor Strange 2 stays intact.
But even with Marvel being tight-lipped with the upcoming movies, fans and enthusiasts have done some digging and online publications have reported that few new characters have been added to the already booming cast of the movie. The new cast reportedly includes Mara Natuzzi, Sandra Chaffey, Mace Smales and Mark Lockhart. Their characters too are being speculated as the reports are pretty much vague at the moment.
Mara Natuzzi is rumoured to essay the role of “Maria”, as for Maria, it is not quite clear if it is the S.H.I.E.L.D agent Maria Hill, or probably someone else from the multiverse. While that is Maria’s story at the moment, Mark Lockhart is supposed to play an officer probably from NYPD. But besides them, the interesting casting is actually of Sandra Chaffey and Mace Smales and this is mainly because of their vague but somehow distinct description of the characters. Apparently Mace Smales has been roped in to play a “novice archer” and Sandra Chaffey has been roped in to play a “warrior”.
So, there have been many speculations going on, on the internet regarding these two characters specifically. Many have been saying that since Doctor Strange 2 will play with the multiverse, the novice archer might actually be a variant of “Hawkeye” and Sandra Chaffey’s “warrior” might be a variant of either Thor or Shang-Chi. But, these are only speculations because there are possibilities that they might not be variants but actually new characters being introduced into MCU as there are quite a few superheroes trained in Archery besides Clint Barton and Kate Bishop and as for “warrior”, almost every superhero in Marvel is one.
So along with these new inclusions of cast, the movie already has Benedict Cumberbatch returning as Dr. Strange, Elizabeth Olsen joining in as Wanda/Scarlet Witch, Benedict Wong as Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo and new entry of Xochitl Gomez. The movie is being directed by Sam Raimi and according to the actors the movie might end up becoming a horror show to many, as it includes various scary elements.
Marvel has been giving us hints about these movies with its two series. The first one being WandaVision where Wanda created a whole different reality and now with Loki where we are being introduced to Nexus Events and also variants. If Loki can have variants, so can everyone else. So imagining variant entries of our favourite superheroes shouldn’t be a big deal now.
As for the movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is set to release on the 25th of March, 2022. Much of the production has been stalled due to the pandemic, when they began shooting in November 2020 and had to stop by January, 2021. It resumed in March 2021 and concluded by mid-April in Somerset.