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After Marvel announced that the Doctor Strange sequel would delve into the mysteries of the multiverse, fans wondered if future projects would introduce elements of the multiverse. And when Loki premiered, many believed it would directly affect Doctor Strange 2. However, Marvel didn’t confirm a connection between the two projects until now.

'Doctor Strange 2' star Benedict Cumberbatch and 'Loki' star Tom Hiddleston pose for pictures. Cumberbatch wears a black suit over a white button-up shirt and black tie. Hiddleston wears a black tux with a black bow tie.
Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston | Photo by David M. Benett/Getty Images

What happened in the ‘Loki’ Season 1 finale?

The season 1 finale of Loki seemingly set up Doctor Strange 2, thanks to its multiversal implications.

Loki, the version who escaped from the Avengers in 2012 in Avengers: Endgame, encounters the Time Variance Authority in the Marvel Disney+ show’s first episode. The TVA monitors the timeline and deals with variants that threaten the Sacred Timeline. They capture him because he isn’t supposed to exist. Loki works with the TVA throughout the series to find a dangerous Loki variant, Sylvie. But then they fall in love and team up to fight the TVA.

In the finale, Loki and Sylvie find He Who Remains, the creator of the TVA. He tells them that he stopped a multiversal war between his evil variants and created the TVA to prevent it from ever happening again. After a fight, Sylvie sends Loki back to the TVA headquarters, and she kills He Who Remains. Her actions essentially tear open the multiverse, and Loki finds himself in another universe.

Understandably, many fans would believe that the events of the Loki finale would affect Doctor Strange 2. But the multiverse in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is quite complicated.

How ‘Loki’ affected ‘Doctor Strange 2’

In the Spring 2022 issue of Disney’s D23 Magazine (via The Direct), Doctor Strange 2 producer Richie Palmer shared how Loki directly impacted the upcoming MCU movie.

“It was really exciting,” he revealed. “We found that we didn’t need to spend a lot of time recapping the rules; we felt the audience would get a lot of that by now. With [Loki creator] Michael [Waldron], we could jump into telling a good story within what’s already been established.”

So, since Loki already explained the multiverse and its rules, the crew behind Doctor Strange 2 felt they could skip over that in the movie. And because Michael Waldron wrote both Loki and the Doctor Strange sequel, Marvel felt confident that they would accurately portray the multiverse without any plot holes.

Palmer said, “Michael’s strength is the character stuff. As you saw in Loki, all the best moments involved the characters against the backdrop of those alternate timelines. It’s kind of like that in our movie, too. Michael’s script brought a lot of heart to sci-fi concepts, such as the multiverse.”

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Why Loki could appear in ‘Doctor Strange 2’

Marvel confirmed Loki Season 2, but that doesn’t mean fans can’t expect to see Tom Hiddleston in Doctor Strange 2. Anything is possible when the multiverse is involved.

With the new trailer’s release, fans are hard at work to discover which characters appear in the Doctor Strange 2 cast. Many believe that Patrick Stewart will reprise his role as Professor X. And others think that Ryan Reynolds might make his MCU debut as Deadpool.

As far as we’re concerned, every Marvel character could be in the Doctor Strange sequel. And it wouldn’t be surprising if Loki appeared, especially given the Loki finale.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness premieres exclusively in theaters on May 6.

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