‘Multiverse of Madness’: The Important Line People Missed
*DISCLAIMER* - This article contains BIG spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Not cutesy spoilers you’d get from the trailers, but gigantic spoilers which ruin one of the biggest surprises. If you haven’t seen the film yet, please proceed with caution.
As of last Friday I’ve now attended two screenings of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). I always like seeing a new film twice in the cinema, so I can go back when my expectations have levelled. The intention is to enjoy myself without the burden of the unknown, and to pick up on things I missed the first time around. Unfortunately, in this instance my 7/10 review didn’t change, however there is something I picked up on which I’d somehow forgotten about. There is a line of dialogue which in hindsight could be HUGE, and I think more people should be talking about the implications this could have on the wider MCU.
**FULL SPOILER WARNING** for the rest of the article. I will be going deep into spoiler territory, so continue reading at your own risk. You’ve been warned twice kids.
First, allow me to set the scene. Doctor Strange and America Chavez have travelled through the multiverse and have landed in an alternate dimension, where the multiverse is better understood. Experts have designated the MCU as Earth-616, which matches the main comic book continuity, whereas their own dimension is classified as Earth-838. Upon meeting variants of Mordo and Christine Palmer, it transpires the Earth-838 approach to multiversal travel is less than welcoming. Our two heroes are captured, and Doctor Strange is brought before The Illuminati, a secret council of heroes who work behind the scenes to solve issues, and to prevent issues from ever arising. Among this council there’s an appearance from none other than Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, played by fan favourite John Krasinski. Queue the internal screaming of every fan who has wanted to see this for years, present company included. Well, it’s when this character is on screen that the HUGE line in question occurs. Doctor Strange is informed of who this character is and their team affiliation, to which Doctor Strange asks of the Fantastic Four:
“Didn’t you guys chart in the 60s?”
At face value, this is a funny throwaway joke about the Fantastic Four being an older comic book property. However, there are two possibilities of what this line could actually mean. One is kind of cool. The other would have massive implications for the MCU. Allow me to indulge.
-
Meaning #1: music reference
For those who didn’t know, The Fantastic Four is also the name of a band from Detroit who formed in the mid-1960s. In Doctor Strange (2016) we see that our titular hero is a huge music geek and loves having his obscure music knowledge tested. So it’s entirely possible Strange was making a snide joke about the band, especially considering his use of the verb “chart”, which is a reference to the music charts. This is an entirely plausible argument, however it is also quite a niche reference.
The problem with name-checking a band or artist who aren’t widely known, like Beyoncé or The Beatles, is that the reference has a higher chance of being missed completely. I personally don’t think such a huge film would feature a joke as small and niche as this, for three members of the audience to chuckle at. In a similar sense, if a comic book fan wanted to make a joke which is accessible to a wide audience, they would reference Spider-Man or Superman, rather than the Wonder Twins or Man-Thing. I’m not questioning the validity of this being a music reference, however it’s perhaps more of a secondary or tertiary meaning.
Meaning #2: origin story
Ever since it was confirmed the Fantastic Four would be joining the MCU in their own solo film, the internet has been rife with rumours of what their origin story would look like. The team has an incredibly simple origin, which has been adapted on screen twice before, each time providing a different spin. There are a couple of interesting ways to tackle this, which would hopefully fulfil the question of where the team has been until now.
The obvious answer is that these characters will go through their origin story in the modern day and emerge as brand new heroes. We’ll see them in present day as they hurtle off into space in an experimental rocket, which will be exposed to cosmic rays and grant the four characters amazing powers. Again, it’s a simple story, but it would work rather well. More importantly it would successfully combat any awkward questions which would arise from the team already existing and suddenly emerging with no explanation as to where the heck they’ve been.
The more interesting theory ties directly into the line of dialogue in question. The alternative origin story the MCU could tell starts in the 60s. Rather than being introduced in present day, the Fantastic Four actually make their debut in 1961, the same year as their comic book debut. After establishing themselves as famous superheroes, one particularly unfortunate outer space adventure would see them disappear out of our dimension. They’d remain in an alternate dimension trying desperately to find a way out, not knowing how long they’ve been there. Then, after over 60 years they return to present day Earth (somehow) and continue their existence and their work in a world which is very different from what they know. Hence, when Doctor Strange highlighted the fact they were popular in the 1960s, this wasn’t a meta joke about comic books. It was actually him referencing the fact the FF existed in the MCU in the 1960s, before they disappeared mysteriously. It’s not necessarily the most inspired way of telling their origin, and would undoubtedly rely on flashbacks to fill in the gaps, but it would leave us in a very different place. It would mean we’ve got history to uncover, and that the FF who emerge in the present day would be an established and experienced team who already have a solid reputation. We could potentially skip an origin movie, and instead jump straight to a fully fleshed out team, including Franklin and Valeria Richards.
It’s not watertight, but I can’t deny it’s captured my imagination.
-
This is all just speculation of course. As to whether the FF debut in the MCU as new characters, or long lost heroes from the 1960s, it all comes down to personal preference. However, we do have to take into consideration the wider MCU continuity. Marvel Studios need to tread carefully when they introduce the Fantastic Four, because there are problems they’ll inevitably run into regardless of which approach they take. Consider for example:
- New characters in present day - It would mean telling an origin story, which is something fans have grown increasingly bored with. The FF have a simple origin, so trying to find an original way to tell this would run the risk of over-complicating things. Considering this is an origin we’ve already seen twice before on the big screen, we know how easy it is to get this origin wrong by making it more complex than it is.
- Pre-existing characters - With big teams like Fantastic Four and X-Men, their sudden introduction to the franchise can leave big questions which only have awkward answers. If they’re introduced in Phase Four as pre-existing characters who have been around this whole time, then it begs the question: where have they been for the last fourteen years? And more importantly, where the bloody hell were they when Thanos dusted half of all life in the universe? This is a problem we’ve already seen arise. Captain Marvel was shown to be around in the 1990s, then when fans asked “where has she been all this time?”, and “why didn’t she show up for the battle of New York in 2012?” the writers delivered the thoroughly underwhelming answer of “she was busy with space stuff.” Then, the problem reared its head again in Phase Four. Eternals (2021) introduced a new team of heroes who have been on Earth for over 7,000 years. This caused many fans to ask questions once again, and the film shoddily wrote itself into a hole, providing thoroughly dissatisfying answers, if not avoiding answers entirely.
- Disappearing from the 60s (Part 1) - If the FF were such a big team, supposedly big enough to “chart” or at least become a household name, then someone at some point would have mentioned them. If there were a group of four superheroes in blue jumpsuits, including a literal rock monster and someone whose whole body turns into a flame, people would remember that and talk about it. At the very least the main offender who would have mentioned the FF is Nick Fury. When Fury was bringing the Avengers together, it wouldn’t have been pitched as a brand new idea, but rather the argument of Earth needing another superhero team like they had in the 1960s.
- Disappearing from the 60s (Part 2) - If the FF have been around for a while, then it would also mean their side characters and their villains are known to the world. Thanos would not have been Earth’s first super villain rodeo when the likes of Galactus and Doctor Doom are knocking around. So either the FF only fought small villains in the 1960s and their main adversaries exist in present day (despite Doctor Doom being the former college roommate of Reed Richards), or the FF fought all of their biggest and boldest villains in the 1960s and everybody simply forgot. A giant purple devourer of planets invaded Earth, and nobody was impacted enough to commit this to memory - tequila is a hell of a drink, ain’t it?
- Disappearing from the 60s (Part 3) - This wouldn’t be entirely original, would it? It’d be a re-hash of the first arc we saw Captain America go through. The hero from the past who then disappears and re-emerges in the present day is literally the same story as Cap. Would fans want to see that happen again? Not necessarily.
- Disappearing from the 60s (Part 4) - How would you bring them back? I don’t envy the writers at all because it’s difficult to write an original, cool idea in such a huge franchise. I just know that if the story they tell involves The Hulk snapping everyone back into present day, including the FF team, the collective head slap from the fans would be deafening.
The idea of bringing the FF forward from the 1960s would be a cool idea, and one which is very much in line with their antics from the comic books, but it’s also not the most practical of ideas.
-
So what does this line from Multiverse of Madness mean for the MCU? Well, obviously nobody knows. It could mean nothing at all, but it also could mean anything. The line is deliberately ambiguous and was clearly meant to make fans like me overthink. I would love to go further into this and watch the film a third time to see if there are any other clues, but I’m trying to stay level headed. For now, this was simply a fun moment in an otherwise troubled film, and it made me very happy as a long-time fan of the Fantastic Four. Given Mister Fantastic’s grizzly fate with the rest of The Illuminati, I’m undecided as to whether Krasinski appeared in this film exclusively at cameo capacity, or that was indeed the face of Mister Fantastic we will see again on Earth-616. I would like to think it’s the latter, but I’m also not mad if someone else is cast.
Regardless of what this specific line of dialogue means, we’re all winners at the end of the day. We’re living in a world where arguably some of the most important characters in all of Marvel history will soon be joining the MCU. They’ve had a rocky history on the big screen, so this could finally be the chance to get it right. If the line of dialogue from Multiverse of Madness is in fact Strange referencing the FF as a pre-existing superhero team, then this is huge news. It’s something we were all aware of in theory, but this line and the appearance from John Krasinski was something tangible, something substantial. The Fantastic Four existing in the MCU is no longer just a whisper in a hurricane, it’s cold hard truth. It’s something we all knew was coming, but we didn’t know when, where or how. We still don’t have all the answers, but this brought the Fantastic Four right to our doorstep, and it made me incredibly happy.
If you enjoyed reading this article, stick around and check out some of my recent articles leading up to the release of ‘Multiverse of Madness’:
