There Might Be a CAPTAIN MARVEL Easter Egg in DOCTOR STRANGE
There might have been a little Captain Marvel Easter egg in Doctor Strange, and if you were really paying attention you might have caught it. If not, then let's talk about it! Don’t worry, there aren't any spoilers here, so if you haven’t seen the movie, this is just something to keep a look out for when you do see the movie.
Right before Stephen Strange gets into his devastating car accident that sets his whole story of studying the mystic arts in motion, he is on the phone with a colleague who is talking to him about several possible new patients that he could take on.
One of the patients mentioned is described as a Marine Colonel who has a spinal injury from using “experimental armor.” A lot of fans have speculated that this could be Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle), who was partially paralyzed in Captain America: Civil War at the end of the epic airport battle sequence.
According to EW, director Scott Derrickson previously said that War Machine wasn’t the one being referenced. Doctor Strange is supposed to end around the same time as the events that we saw in Civil War. If that’s the case, the patient in question at the beginning of the movie couldn’t have been Rhodes because the accident took place years before.
It’s speculated that the “Marine Colonel” being referred to in Doctor Strange is most likely one of the men Tony Stark’s rival weapon’s manufacturer, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), used while testing his own Iron Man-type combat armor. There is footage in Iron Man 2 of one person getting hurt while testing out the suit.
Now on to Captain Marvel. There is another patient that's mentioned in the phone call. Strange was very interested in working with her because she was a young woman in her 20s who was struck by lightening. The report reminds us that this was “a serious injury complicated by an electronic implant in her brain to help quell her schizophrenia.”
Derrickson was asked if this was a reference to Captain Marvel, but he didn’t confirm or deny, all he did was smile and say, “Remember that Brittany Murphy movie where she goes ‘I’ll never tell…’”
If it is Captain Marvel, we know that isn’t how she gets her powers in the comic series, but it has previously been confirmed that her origin story has been changed, so there is a possibility that this could offer us some insight to her new origin. If that’s the case, it’s definitely an interesting way to go!