‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ ends with Stephen Strange succumbing to the effects of the Darkhold, and growing a third eye, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) offering was intended to go down a darker route. 

Screenwriter Michael Waldron explained how Benedict Cumberbatch’s character encountered a far more dangerous fate in the alternate ending, where he’d meet Sinister Strange, his twisted version who dabbled in dark magic, in the incursion universe. 

As per Waldron, Strange could have traded places with his sinister counterpart. “Strange gets trapped in that [incursion] universe”, he said, revealing “And then [Sinister Strange] turns around, and the third eye opens.” 

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In the alternate plan, this scene would have been announced with Vincent Price’s iconic laugh, the same one appearing in Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. However, the current ending sees Strange falling to the streets of New York as the third eye manifests. 

Waldron spoke to ComicBook about this, saying “That’s the bill coming due”, and added, “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.” 

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Currently, Strange is sought out by Clea, who can also travel through universes. Played by Charlize Theron, the character asks Strange to help her clean his mess. In the comics, Clea is Dormammu’s niece – the entity Strange faced in the first movie. 

Rife with rich visuals, the most recent Doctor Strange movie took strides to flesh out Wanda Maximoff’s character, and her experiments being the Scarlet Witch. She was first given her own series and the film continues this narration, forming overall connections within Phase IV of the MCU.