The moratorium on going public with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness didn’t last long, with Charlize Theron caving after less than a week to reveal the first image of the debuting Clea to her 6.9 million Instagram followers, days after acknowledging the cat was out of the bag.
While it was undeniably exciting to see the Academy Award winner, prolific producer, and proven action star make her debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the cameo felt a little tacked-on. If you weren’t well-versed in comic book lore, then you wouldn’t have had a clue that Theron was playing Stephen Strange’s longtime friend, regular lover, and occasional adversary until it was listed as such in the credits.
It’s another example of the “here’s an A-lister we’re saving for later” mentality that has blighted many a stinger, but as you can see from the reactions below, fans don’t care in the slightest now they know Clea is set to make a huge impact in the mystical side of the mythology moving forward.
Given that Multiverse of Madness has blown past the $500 million box office barrier in less than a week, the confirmation of Doctor Strange 3 is surely happening sooner rather than later. Let’s hope it doesn’t take anywhere near as long as the five and a half years between Scott Derrickson’s opener and Sam Raimi’s sequel, though, by which time Cumberbatch and Theron would both be in their 50s.
Doctor Strange in the Midlife Crisis of Madness isn’t too bad an idea, to be fair, but we’ll just have to wait and see how it all pans out.