Why Was Doctor Strange Trending After The Loki Finale?

Will we see Loki in the Multiverse of Madness?

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After the season finale of Loki on Disney+, Doctor Strange began trending on Twitter, even though Strange does not appear in the episode, Strange is never mentioned in the episode, and there are no references to Strange’s overall mythology in the episode. A similar thing happened after the finale of WandaVision, but there it was a little different. We know Elizabeth Olsen is reprising her role as Scarlet Witch in Strange’s sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and so many expected a Strange cameo in the finale to link the two stories together. Phase One of the MCU did this frequently with Nick Fury, and Black Widow recently ended in a similar way to ensure that Yelena is included in the MCU moving forward. There were no rumours or castings with Loki though, so why was Doctor Strange trending after the finale?

First off, it’s important to remember Loki’s place in the Marvel canon. The Loki we see in the Loki show is from the first Avengers movie. He has not experienced the events of Thor 2, Thor: Ragnarok, or Avengers: Infinity War. His mischievous cruelty did not result in the death of his mother – the only person who ever truly loved him – and he did not have his Waititi-directed face turn, nor did he witness the destruction of Asgard or die attempting to kill Thanos. That Loki, the one who dies in Endgame, is the exact same person as the TV show’s Loki, right up until the Battle of New York. At this point, after a Sliding Doors moment caused by time travel shenanigans, that Loki splits into two – he’s not a different character, per se, so much as he is the result of a different future for the same character. This is important to remember because the Loki we know has met Doctor Strange, but the Loki in the Disney+ show has not.

Spoilers for Loki’s season finale follow.

Loki ends with Loki and Sylvie meeting Kang, who they discover is the ruler – some might say conqueror, geddit? – of the TVA. This is the Time Variance Authority that has been working with Loki to find other Lokis, and in episode four, we already found out that things were not as they seemed, with all of the workers being brainwashed variants whose true identities are being hidden from them. While the show is pretty coy about who Kang is or what his deal is, the overall premise is surprisingly simple – this Kang created the TVA to limit the influence of other Kangs in other multiverses, and so when Loki and Sylvie come to kill him, he doesn’t feel threatened. He’s tired of keeping the Kangs out, so either they take his place and do his job, or they kill him and all the other Kangs are no longer held from the universe’s door, causing untold chaos. Loki wants to spare Kang, but Sylvie gets the better of him and kills the TVA boss, calling his bluff.

Unfortunately, it was not a bluff, and now all kinds of multiverses are spilling into each other. Considering Strange’s movie is subtitled ‘In the Multiverse of Madness,’ he’d be the multiverse buster you’d call when there’s something strange in the neighbourhood. Strange like weird, not Strange like his name. Because you wouldn’t need to call him if he was already in your neighborhood, right?

Anyway, this ending suggests Doctor Strange is going to have to step in to fight Kang, or at the very least, limit the damage he does to the multiverse. Since Strange does not show up though, this might not impact things at all. We don’t know if these Kangs can influence the Sacred Timeline (where the MCU takes place), or if their meddling is confined to the various offshoots that the Loki show adventures through. Loki is getting a second season to deal with this, after all, and the Sacred Timeline Kang is already dead – he’s the one killed in the finale.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness may be in danger of becoming overly full as well – Wanda seems to be set on a villain arc, and introducing Kang into the mix complicates that. She appears to have not learned from her selfishness in WandaVision, where she largely got off without any consequence, at least as far as law enforcement goes. If Multiverse of Madness makes the most of Wanda’s freedom and provides further consequences down the line, that’s excusable. If she’s just back in the fold as a regular hero and gets her kids back all hunky dory, the whole thing seems like a waste of time.

Of course, another reason that Doctor Strange was trending is just because people like him. Of the upcoming MCU movies, most of them focus on new characters, like Shang-Chi or Eternals. Doctor Strange is not only a sequel, it’s a sequel that’s confirmed to feature Scarlet Witch – another hugely popular character.

Of the other sequels, Spider-Man is owned by Sony and is unlikely to cross over with other films and shows very often, Black Panther has a far more sombre context after Chadwick Boseman’s death, and Ant-Man’s box office returns prove it doesn’t quite have the draw of Doctor Strange. That just leaves Thor, which was never likely to cross over with a Loki project that clearly wants to establish Hiddleston as a leading man rather than a second Asgardian banana.

Undoubtedly, we will see more Loki and more Doctor Strange in the future. As for whether or not we’ll see them together, that’s anyone’s guess.

Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/doctor-strange-trending-loki/