The post-credits scene of the episode “The Series Finale” (1×09) of the miniseries WandaVision (Jac Schaeffer, 2021) gives us a little clue about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But it’s the last of Loki (Michael Waldron, since 2021), which is titled “For All Time. Always” (1×06), where they explain to us how He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) had created the Temporary Variation Authority to prevent let the multiverse unravel. Which happens just after the variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) kills the aforementioned.
Although Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) assures in Spider-Man: No Way Home (Jon Watts, 2021) that “the multiverse is a concept about which we know disturbingly little”, refers to parallel realities and dimensions that exist. Like the Quantum Realm of Ant Man (Peyton Reed, 2015), the Astral, Mirror and Dark Dimension of Doctor Strange (Scott Derrickson, 2016), the time lines of Avengers: Endgame (Joe and Anthony Russo, 2019) or the dimension of Ta Lo in Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2021).
The main consequence of the fracture of the multiverse in Loki it is the liberation of the infinite ramifications of the Sacred Line of Time; in which the possibilities of reality being one specific way or another they multiply endlessly. Which includes different versions of the characters, as we have seen in What would happen if…? (A. C Bradley, since 2021), with Uatu, the Watcher (Jeffrey Wright), observing the multiversal ensemble, and in Spider-Man: No Way Home. And how will it reflect Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (SamRaimi, 2022).
A lot of people in the Marvel multiverse
The bet for integrate the superheroes and their antagonists from the previous movies tol Marvel Cinematic Universe in the same, using the ideal conjuncture of the multiverse, is very attractive. They started surreptitiously, with the J. Jonah Jameson (JK Simmons) from the film Spider-Man: Far From Home (Jon Watts, 2019), because the well-known actor who plays him is the same as in the Sam Raimi trilogy (2002-2007). And, after so many rumors and public hopes, the definitive confirmation has arrived in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
This film has brought us the Peter Parker version of Tobey Maguire in the aforementioned trilogy and that of Andrew Garfield in the two feature films by Marc Webb (2012, 2014); and various villains of both: Otto Octavius or Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), Norman Osborn or the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Max Dillon or Electro (Jamie Foxx), Dr. Curt Connors or Lizard (Rhys Ifans) and Flint Marko or the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church). But also, a cameo from Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), star of Daredevil (Drew Goddard, 2015-2018).
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But this last one has come with a perfidious company; in the miniseries Hawk Eye (Jonathan Igla, 2021), his Wilson Fisk or Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) has been introduced. And, if the filtered list of who will appear on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness it is not false, many people are waiting for us; from The incredible Hulk (Kenneth Johnson, 1977-1982), Doctor Strange (Philip DeGuere Jr., 1978), the saga of X Men (BryanSinger, 2000), Daredevil (Mark Steven Johnson, 2003) or The Fantastic Four (Tim Story, 2004, 2007).
Global narrative integration, a very ambitious plan
The project of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in principle, consisted of the elaboration of a long saga of films and series of adventures that adapted, with executive producer Kevin Feige at the head, the endless stream of superhero stories that the company has published in its comics since August 1939. Twenty-three films had come out of it in three phases that make up what has been called the Infinity Saga (2008-2019); with the dark purpose of Thanos (Josh Brolin) to gather the six Infinity Stones for a universal genocide.
Such a proposal, of course, contemplates that the different characters star in their own films and then interact in other installments; What The Avengers, the age of ultron (Joss Whedon, 2012, 2015), Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War (Russo Brothers, 2016, 2018) or end game. But what is propitiating the spread of the multiverse of Marvel, or what Kevin Feige and company have decided to promote, goes beyond any idea of crossover that has been made before in the cinema.
It must be remembered that the first cinematographic universe in history was that of Universal’s monsters; with thirty-one feature films dracula (Tod Browning, 1931) and The Vengeful Monster (John Sherwood, 1956) and the pioneering crossing of Frankenstein and the Wolf Man (Roy William Neil, 1943). Mixing characters and plots from independent films and series in principle is nothing new, then.
But what Marvel is building is an integration of its many decades-long adaptations into the same narrative corpus; interrelated thanks to the fragmentation of the multiverse. Just like in the comics but with your own artistic tools. A very ambitious plan that those who value the exploration of possible storytelling techniques can only see as quite impressive.