Warning: this article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
A new fan theory suggests Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange may not have been the hero you thought he was in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
In the film, the sorcerer plays something of a mentor figure to Tom Holland’s Peter Parker when the young hero finds himself in a jam. Be warned, from here on out, we will be discussing spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home, so head back to your homepage if you don’t want the movie ruined.
In the film, Dr. Strange is quick to jump the gun in terms of sending villains brought into Peter’s world back to their respective universes, where they are just moments before meeting their demise. One of the film’s main conflicts is how Peter wants to remedy some of the super-powered abilities plaguing the villains before sending them back, giving them at least a chance at redemption and maybe not dying. But Strange insists if they’re not sent back, and sooner rather than later, it can cause essentially a rip in the space-time continuum.
A fan on Reddit pointed out how, while the character of Strange has always had hubris, he was also very slow to resort to killing, making his decisions in No Way Home seem contradictory. Since he started out as a medical doctor, the 2016 film in which he debuted seemed to emphasize a “do no harm” type code for the character. Even in the original Doctor Strange film, the character questions Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo after the latter suggests outright killing Mads Mikkelsen’s Kaecilius and his minions. Check out the post for yourself below, by Reddit user u/CSedu.
Perhaps this is all a clue that the long-held fan theory that Dr. Strange in Spider-Man: No Way Home isn’t exactly the hero we know, but instead his evil double known as Strange Supreme. We already know the evil Strange will appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so perhaps that film will have additional revelations about the previous chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe when it comes to theaters on May 6, 2022.