No offense intended to Rachel McAdams, but it wouldn’t be unfair to say that her contributions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Doctor Strange were minimal at best. The actress was positioned in a similar fashion to Natalie Portman in the first two Thor movies in the role of ‘hugely talented star as one-dimensional and underwritten love interest,’ leading to talk that she might not return for the sequel.
McAdams’ Christine Palmer was initially announced to be part of the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness cast, only for it to be revealed shortly afterwards that she’d dropped out, before things eventually came full circle and she signed on the dotted line. There’s no official word yet on how she factors into the plot, but let’s hope that it’s in a much more significant and useful fashion than before.
After all, she’s the only member of the ensemble confirmed so far that doesn’t have any superpowers or mystical abilities, so there must have been a reason why she agreed to play such a flimsy character for a second time, outside of those bumper MCU paychecks of course. In any case, in a recent Reddit AMA, writer of the first film C. Robert Cargill addressed what happened to Stephen Strange and Christine’s relationship after the events of the movie, and here’s what he had to say:
“They went their own ways and became the one that got away to each of them.”
Of course, that’s a fairly standard response, and Cargill hasn’t been involved in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness since original director Scott Derrickson dropped out, but Sam Raimi might end up picking up on that thread by establishing how the two went their separate ways before ultimately winding up back in each other’s orbit.