If you thought Jon Watts’s Spider-Man: No Way Home was packed with character cameos from the Marvel of yesteryear, hold onto your butts for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Former Spider-Man overseer Sam Raimi is back in the world of superhero movies and, this time, he’s tackling the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s first horror hybrid.
While the first trailer already teased a who’s who of heroes and villains including *deep breath* Stephen Strange, Baron Mordo, Wanda Maximoff, Wong, America Chavez, Christine Palmer, and maybe even Loki, the action-packed Super Bowl teaser literally opened the doors to the Multiverse.
The big talking point is the apparent return of Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier, but if you look closely enough, Raimi could be hiding another sneaky supe in plain sight.
If you jump to the 95-second mark in the trailer, you’ll see Wanda going head-to-head with a mystery character who appears to be flying through the sky with a glow around them. Although it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it inclusion, fans are obsessed with trying to figure out who this is.
So, let’s run through the theories.
Marvel Studios
Captain Marvel or Monica Rambeau
These days, the MCU has become an expert at world-building for future projects. Just like WandaVision set Scarlet Witch up for Multiverse of Madness, there’s a chance Raimi is queuing up Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels.
The Captain Marvel sequel is confirmed to bring back Brie Larson and Teyonah Parris in their respective roles as Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau, with their superhero counterparts typically sporting a glow around them.
We last saw Danvers chatting with Wong in the Shang-Chi post-credit scene, with the pair looking into an outer-space anomaly. The glowing figure definitely has the look of Captain Marvel, while we know Rambeau and Wanda have history thanks to the Westview incident in Wandavision.
Could we see Monica embrace her all-powerful alter ego for Round Two, or is Carol stepping in to help her pal take out the Scarlet Witch?
The Human Torch
Marvel
Leaning into the wackier side of fan theories, there’s already hype we could be witnessing the Human Torch’s MCU debut/return from the Fantastic Four franchise.
Some glowing dude flying around seems like a stretch, but with a tease of the team known as the Illuminati and Mister Fantastic being part of the roster, there’s every chance his teammate has snuck in.
If this is Johnny Storm, there’s the baffling possibility we could see Michael B Jordan reprise his role from Josh Trank’s panned Fant4stic, or what about Chris Evans making a very different kind of return from Tim Story’s ’00s outings? (We admit that given their previous roles as Killmonger and Cap respectively, these two have a possibility rating of 0.0000001%.)
If not these two, we could be getting a first look at a brand-new Human Torch for Watts’ upcoming Fantastic Four reboot.
Nova
Marvel Comics
Another major player we’ve yet to see take flight is Nova. Better known as Richard Rider, this helmeted hero fits the bill for Wanda’s flying opponent.
Then again, he’s typically associated with the Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova Corps rather than Strange, Wanda, or anyone we’ve seen in Raimi’s movie.
James Gunn can barely move for questions about whether he’s going to add Rider to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and if Peacemaker‘s Chukwudi Iwuji is portraying Nova, so it would seem odd to slot this niche addition into an already packed Multiverse of Madness.
Tom Cruise as the Superior Iron Man
Bear with us on this one as, way back when, Tom Cruise was in the running to play Iron Man.
Before the MCU even existed, Cruise was linked to the role of Tony Stark around 2004. It would be hard for Raimi to keep a lid on Robert Downey Jr’s return, while his near-perfect send off means it makes sense to cast someone else as a Multiverse Iron Man.
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For those who aren’t convinced, a close-up look at the character makes it look like a goateed man wearing the Superior Iron Man suit from Marvel Comics.
Including Cruise would be a huge trivia throwback to what could have been, and given that the Mission: Impossible star’s name keeps doing the rounds in Multiverse of Madness rumor roundups, it’s not as out-there as it sounds.
Someone else entirely
Given that Professor X is wheeling back into our lives, there’s every chance we’re facing the birth of the X-Men in the MCU.
There are any number of mutants who could take on the mantle of this glowing enemy, with an obvious one being Jean Grey in her Phoenix form. It’s probably too much to hope for Famke Janssen reprising her role, whereas Sophie Turner’s version seems equally as unlikely given the panning of Dark Phoenix.
Whoever it is, it remains to be seen whether this character is key to the story or just another Ralph Bohner.
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