Doctor Strange 2 Could Already Have Broken No Way Home’s Coolest Record

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness could have already broken a Spider-Man: No Way Home record. About two months after the first trailer for the next Doctor Strange debuted during the post-credits scene of No Way Home, the second trailer for Multiverse of Madness confirmed old rumors and set up new mysteries. Now that Loki and No Way Home have opened the doors to the Multiverse for the MCU, it seems like Multiverse of Madness will live up to its name and deliver the franchise’s most ambitious movie yet.

Despite having a plot that was considerably simpler than the one in Multiverse of Madness seems to be, No Way Home managed to make the most of the possibilities of the Multiverse by bringing together three generations of Spider-Man in the same film. While the focus was rightly on Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and his supporting cast, the heroes and villains from Maguire’s and Garfield’s universes received good enough arcs to justify their returns in an MCU crossover. In addition to providing closure to the journeys of the two previous Spider-Men and their villains, No Way Home had also helped Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe to secure the record for the longest time playing a Marvel character — until now.

The trailer for Multiverse of Madness revealed that Patrick Stewart will return to the role of Professor Xavier as a member of the MCU’s version of the Illuminati. Should this version of Professor Xavier be the same one from the original X-Men timeline just transported to another corner of the Multiverse, then Patrick Stewart will break Maguire and Dafoe’s record by a solid two years. Stewart first appeared as Charles Xavier in X-Men (2000) and became almost a constant presence in the X-Men franchise from then on. Even after the original trilogy ended, Stewart would return as Professor X in quick cameos in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine, as well as in major roles in X-men: Days of Future Past and Logan.

That said, it is hard to tell whether or not Professor X from Multiverse of Madness will be the same version that Patrick Stewart has been playing for the last twenty years. With the concept of the Multiverse already established in MCU’s Phase 4, almost anything has become possible in terms of alternate versions of familiar characters. The distinction between different versions becomes even more difficult when the chronology of the X-Men movies is thrown into the mix. For example, audiences still question whether the James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart versions of Professor X are the same.

If Patrick Stewart is indeed playing the same Professor Xavier as before in Multiverse of Madness, then Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe’s record in No Way Home has just been broken. When Doctor Strange’s second film finally hits theaters, almost 22 years will have passed since Stewart first graced audiences with his portrayal of the leader of the X-Men. Even if turns out not to be the exact same character, Stewart’s presence in Multiverse of Madness is already a huge deal both for the actor and for the history of Marvel as a whole.