This story contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness!
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ends with a pretty dark twist, with Strange succumbing to the effects of the Darkhold by the end of the movie. But it could have been a lot worse…
During the film’s audio commentary, screenwriter Michael Waldron revealed that Doctor Strange originally suffered a much darker fate by the end of the movie. During the course of the movie, Strange visits an incursion universe in which he meets a twisted version of himself, known as Sinister Strange, who meddled with dark magic.
According to Waldron, it sounds as though Sinister Strange could have traded places with our Doctor Strange: “Strange gets trapped in that [incursion] universe,” he revealed of an alternate plan. “And then [Sinister Strange] turns around, and the third eye opens.”
If that wasn’t haunting enough, the twist would have been announced with Vincent Price’s iconic laugh – echoing the horror icon’s vocals in the Michael Jackson song, Thriller.
Unfortunately, Vincent Price’s laugh remains outside of the MCU for now. What we ended up with was Doctor Strange falling to his knees in the middle of NYC as his third eye manifests.
“That's the bill coming due," Waldron told ComicBook. "As Wong says, 'You used the Darkhold to possess your own corpse.' Surely, there must be some fallout. It was a little bit of a throwback to [director Sam Raimi's] old Evil Dead, and that groaner of an ending, or it's just like, 'Oh my God, things turned out bad in the end.' So, yeah. We'll see what all that means for Stephen.”
As it stands, we already know that someone comes looking for him. A post-credit scene introduced Doctor Strange character, Clea – played by none other than Charlize Theron. In the comic books, she’s the niece of Dormammu, the demonic entity Strange encountered in the first film.
But don’t panic – she’s actually a force for good, and the pair have often dated in the comics – even if their relationship never usually lasts very long.
Still, it looks as though we got a much more hopeful ending in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness than was originally planned. Want to read more about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? Check out this deleted scene between Strange and Christine Palmer, and find out what could be next for Wanda Maximoff.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, alongside Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch. They’re joined by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams, and Xochitl Gomez.
Sam Raimi directed the movie from a script by Michael Waldron, based on characters created by comic book legends, Steve Ditko, and Stan Lee.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.