Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. 

Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire. However, things would have been quite different had Marvel's original plan gone ahead using Doctor Strange 2's alternate ending.

As confirmed by writer Michael Waldron, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was originally due to have a much darker ending. In it, the Master of the Mystic Arts would have been trapped in the incursion universe, while Sinister Strange, an evil variant of Strange, took his place in Earth-616, pretending to be its Stephen Strange. Though the final ending also showed Strange opening a third eye, suggesting the Darkhold had taken hold of him just as it did with Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), this ending would have seen the film end much more ambiguously.

Related: Doctor Strange 2 Wasted The Potential To Beat No Way Home's Box Office

If Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had been released before Spider-Man: No Way Home as initially planned and featured this ending, both films would have been vastly different. Spider-Man: No Way Home was criticized by some online for featuring a Doctor Strange who was out of character, irresponsibly ignoring Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme (Benedict Wong), and helping Peter Parker brainwash the entire world into forgetting he was Spider-Man. Had this film taken place after The Multiverse of Madness, this would have made far more sense as Sinister Strange would have actively tried to sabotage Peter and his variants and bring down the multiverse.

Doctor Strange 2 Was Supposed To Release Before No Way Home

Sinister Strange reaching toward the sanctum window in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Spider-Man: No Way Home was originally slated to release after The Multiverse of Madness, but the Peter Parker's Mirror Dimension battle with Strange tenser, as both Spider-Man and Sinister Strange would not hold back like Peter and Stephen did in No Way Home.

Had Sinister Strange been an additional villain in Spider-Man: No Way Home, he could have also finally completed the film's version of the Sinister Six (an even better idea due to his name). He could have escaped the Mirror Dimension earlier than Doctor Strange did in the final film, giving Holland, Maguire, and Garfield's Spider-Men an even tougher fight against Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Lizard, Sandman, and Electro. It was a shame not to use Sinister Strange in the finale of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as if the films had maintained their original release date, his inclusion would have made Spider-Man: No Way Home even better.

Next: Doctor Strange Theory Fixes Spider-Man: No Way Home Plot Hole

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