DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS Writer Discusses New Love Interest For Third Film
If you haven’t watched Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness yet, you might want to skip this because I will get into some spoiler-filled details.
At the end of the film during the post-credits scene, audiences are introduced to Charlize Theron as the Marvel character Clea. This character is being set up to be Stephen Strange’s new love interest.
At the end of the movie, Clea shows up and tells Strange that he "caused an incursion" and, "You're going to help me fix it." She then cuts a hole in reality and reveals the Dark Dimension on the other side, which they both jump into.
Clea is a half-Faltine and half-Dark Dimension being. In the comics, Clea fought alongside Dr. Strange in his battles against Dormammu in the Dark Dimension and the two eventually form a relationship and get married. So it makes sense to think that’s where this is headed in the MCU.
During a recent interview with Deadline's Hero Nation Podcast, the film’s scribe Michael Waldron discussed Clea being Doctor Strange's next love interest:
"We always knew we wanted to introduce Clea, who in the comics is you could say the great love of Doctor Strange, but really in a lot of ways his formidable equal as a sorcerer herself. Her backstory is fascinating, she's the niece of Dormammu, the giant floating head from the first movie. They have a lot of great adventures in the comics, and we knew we wanted to introduce her, but it felt like we had to close the book to some extent on his love story with Christine Palmer, Rachel McAdams' character."
I’m excited to see how Strange’s story continues with Clea joining the party and I really hope that Sam Raimi is brought back in to direct the next film! He just did such an incredible job directing Multiverse of Madness. In another interview with SFX Magazine, via Gamesradar, Waldron talks about continuing to play in the multiverse in the MCU, saying:
"The danger is you can expand your scope too wide, and you can actually reduce the stakes if you don't make it personal as you go bigger and wider. But the opportunity in the multiverse is to have characters confront literal 'What ifs?' and alternate versions of themselves and perhaps others in their lives. It's an interesting way to hold up a mirror to characters. In every way, it shapes the emotional heart of the story. It has to. The multiverse isn't just a MacGuffin where we're like, 'Okay, this is just a kitschy thing that we're playing with in this movie.' If you're faced with alternate realities and with alternate versions of yourself that has to become the emotional heart, exploring who you might be if you were a different version of yourself, if you made other choices, the right choices or the wrong choices. It's complex stuff, emotionally, and that's exactly why it's so thrilling and so great for a cast as dramatically talented as this one."
It’s going to be interesting to see how things continue to play out in the MCU with the multiverse aspect of it in full swing!