Warning: Contains Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
If there’s one thing to take away from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it’s that fan theories have proven themselves to be more daring than the actual MCU. The MCU has no obligation to take fan theories into with their stories, and people shouldn’t go in expecting all of their theories to come true. At the same time, however, it feels like a problem when fan theories for the films and shows are often more interesting than what the finished product ends up being.
Leading up to its release, the Doctor Strange 2 post-credits scenes that persisted among audiences for months on end; that, combined with the word of people who had been known to correctly leak plots before, led people to believe that there was legitimacy to most of those theories.
When Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was finally released, however, many of the fan theories surrounding the film ended up not being true, and in a certain way, that shows how much more daring theories are than the actual MCU. Many of the theories people came up with were largely just fanservice, but even those, more often than not, played on the concepts that the film was reported to explore in ways that many perceived as more exciting than how they were eventually executed, especially when it came to the Doctor Strange 2 ending. While the MCU movie wasn’t bad by any means, it says a lot that fan theories were able to do more with the basic story than the actual film could, especially when this isn’t the first time this sort of phenomenon has happened with a Phase 4 project.
Doctor Strange 2 Fan Theories Were Close (But Wrong)
While most of the theories about Multiverse of Madness weren’t correct, many of them were accurate. Promotional material was kept it under wraps, but Wanda being the film's main villain was guessed early on, as was the Darkhold corrupting her mind. Not only that, but various cameos were accurately guessed months before trailers, and the actual film confirmed them - such as Charlize Theron appearing as Clea and there being an Illuminati that was comprised of Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Charles Xavier, Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter, Anson Mount as Black Bolt, John Krasinski as Mister Fantastic, and Lashana Lynch as an alternate Captain Marvel.
The basic plot of the film and the characters who were involved were all guessed correctly by audiences, but there were many things reported to be true that didn’t come to . For example, it was believed that Billy and Tommy would return to the MCU and be aged up to teenagers in preparation for a Young Avengers spinoff, but the film ends with them still separated from the main reality. Additionally, the Living Tribunal was thought to have a part in the film, Loki was reported to be in it as a means of following up where Loki season 1 left off, and Robert Downey Jr.
MCU Phase 4 Theories Are A Problem For Marvel
Most of the really big theories people had about Multiverse of Madness didn’t come to , and that ties into an ongoing problem of fan theories often doing more than the finished products of Phase 4. As previously discussed, Multiverse of Madness was built up as not only being as reference heavy as Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: No Way Home, but it was supposed to be a continuation of No Way Home, WandaVision, and Loki, in addition to being something that would have major implications for the MCU going forward. While Multiverse of Madness did serve as a continuation of the Disney+ series WandaVision, not only was it very light on cameos and references, but it was largely self-contained and didn’t do much to reference stories Strange wasn’t part of or set up future stories for the MCU to explore, with even its exploration into the multiverse being limited to two realities and the establishment of incursions; it’s still possible that the events of the film will factor into future stories, but at the moment, there isn’t a lot that’s being set up. All of this worked to keep the film grounded in its own story, but it also made it a lot smaller than what it was being built up to be, and it says a lot that viewers were able to come up with theories that seemingly resonated more with audiences.
Of course, this is a problem hardly unique to Doctor Strange 2. As previously mentioned, other Phase 4 projects have also been victims of audiences coming up with theories that can come off as more interesting than the finished products. For example, while all of the theories about Mephisto being in WandaVision became a joke by the end of the show’s run, some people argue that it would have worked better than the Agatha Harkness twist, and following Multiverse of Madness, Mephisto being involved with Wanda could have even served as stronger reasoning for her to become a villain. There were also theories about Reed Richards making an appearance that ended up going nowhere, and the now infamous twist of Evan Peters not playing Quicksilver which, to many, missed a perfect opportunity to integrate the X-Men movies and truly start to explore the multiverse, which wouldn’t happen in earnest until Loki.
Similarly, thanks to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
All in all, one of the biggest problems with Phase 4 so far has been the rampant amount of theorizing that the MCU's audience have been doing for every project. Many viewers get attached to various fan theories - especially the ones that end up taking off and get treated as fact - that the movies or shows not acting on them is viewed as a negative. On the one hand, the MCU isn’t obligated to canonize any specific theories people have, but at the same time, many of those theories end up doing more than what the actual film or show did, which creates the perception that MCU Phase 4 isn’t doing as much as it could. Phase 4 is bound to be building up to something big, but if everything up until that point is viewed as smaller than it needs to be, then that could easily create a sense of dissatisfaction within elements of the MCU's audience.
Is Marvel Playing It Too Safe?
With all of that said, is Marvel actually playing it too safe? It’s been discussed at length how many Phase 4 projects ended up being smaller than people thought they would be, but that doesn’t automatically mean that they’re playing things safe. Even if the various shows and movies of Phase 4 aren’t doing as much as some wanted them to, they’re each still doing a lot, and not adding in every possible connection to the wider MCU sphere isn't inherently a bad thing.
If Marvel is doing anything wrong in Phase 4, however, it’s been with how much the red herrings dropped mislead audiences into getting their expectations up. Between MCU Phase 4 project will be bigger than it actually is.
