Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Teaser Open A Dangerous Portal

I haven’t seen Spider-Man: No Way Home yet — no spoilers! — but I do know that Dr. Stephen Strange plays a crucial role in it. I know this because Doctor Strange can rip holes in the cosmos and create portals to alternate universes, or something, and that very ability is the thrust of the plot of the new Spidey flick.

I also know that it’s been a very long five years since Doctor Strange has gotten to anchor his own movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That makes the newly dropped teaser for the delightfully titled film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness a treat. In it, we find the man himself grappling with the ramifications of invoking said multiverse.

From the looks of his brooding, those consequences are likely the exact opposite of the kind of whimsy on display throughout 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a different tale in a different timeline. In this story, Doctor Strange may have to face his biggest threat yet: himself.

Familiar faces abound in the clip, released on Wednesday (December 22). Rachel McAdams’s Dr. Christine Palmer is back, in a wedding dress no less, and also returning are stars Benedict Wong and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Quite excitingly, Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch is here as well, seemingly being pulled out of retirement (or post-WandaVision exile?) for One Last Job. Or whatever the superhero equivalent of that trope is.

“The multiverse is a concept about which we know frighteningly little,” Strange says in voiceover to begin the clip. I would argue the same can be said about the metaverse, but that’s beside the point (for now). Strange’s mystic utilization of the multiverse seems to have unleashed a slew of new dangers that he must contend with in the new movie, due out in theaters May 6.

Notably, the film reunites director Sam Raimi with the world of Marvel. Long before the MCU, Raimi helmed the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy from 2002 to 2007. The current Spider-Man, Tom Holland, recently sat down with MTV News alongside his co-stars Zendaya and Jacob Batalon. Find their chat below.