Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness teaser sees Stephen Strange face off against his evil self. Watch

The teaser for Marvel’s next outing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was released on Wednesday night. The teaser had been first put out as a post-credits sequence at the end of the recently released Spider-Man: No Way Home. But given as it takes off from where Spider-Man ends, Marvel waited almost a week to put the teaser online. The teaser hints that Benedict Cumberbatch may be playing both the hero and the villain here as Doctor Strange is seen coming face-to-face with an evil version of himself.

In the Marvel universe, Doctor Strange is a sorcerer, who uses his knowledge of magic to protect Earth from evils. The character was introduced in his solo film Doctor Strange (2016) and has since appeared in several other Marvel Cinematic Universe films. The two-minute teaser sees Doctor Strange--played by Benedict Cumberbatch--face the consequences of his botched spell from No Way Home. In that film, in an attempt to make people forget Spider-Man’s secret identity, Strange attempted a spell that ripped open a tear in the fabric of the multiverse. While he seemingly repaired it in the climax of No Way Home, we see that Strange is dealing with some repercussions of it in Multiverse of Madness.

The teaser shows him enlisting the help of Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and shows glimpses of characters from the first Doctor Strange movie – Rachel McAdams as Strange’s love interest Christine Palmer and Chiwetel Ejiofor as fellow sorcerer Karl Mordo. It also gives a brief first look at Xochitl Gomez as Miss America, a new superhero being introduced to the MCU in this film. But the teaser’s crowning jewel is towards the end when Strange comes face to face with a seemingly evil version of himself as the voice-over calls him ‘the greatest threat to our universe’.

An evil version of Doctor Strange- called Strange Supreme- was introduced in the Disney Plus series What If? However, it remains unknown whether the evil Strange seen in the Multiverse of Madness is the same or a different variant. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, directed by Sam Raimi, is scheduled to be released in theatres worldwide on May 6, 2022.