What Non-Marvel Fans Need To Know To Watch Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness

Still with me so far? Good, because this is where things get slightly more confusing.

One might not think that a Disney+ series about the God of Mischief, the brother of Thor, and the main villain of 2012’s “The Avengers” would have much to do with the next “Doctor Strange” movie, but this is the MCU we’re talking about, after all. The first wrinkle has to do with the fact that this version of Loki (Tom Hiddleston) isn’t even the same Loki we knew from the movies, who was killed by the evil Thanos (Josh Brolin) early on in “Avengers: Infinity War.” No, “Loki” is actually a spin-off from a loose thread from “Avengers: Endgame,” in which some time travel hijinks leads to a version of Loki from “The Avengers” escaping his timeline and ending up caught by the Time Variance Authority — more or less interdimensional cops. Yep, you can consider this our second major MCU project dedicated to the mysteries of the multiverse.

Though the nitty-gritty particulars of the series aren’t necessary for understanding “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the overall concepts introduced and further explained in “Loki” do play a significant role. Pressed into duty to hunt down one of his own “variants” (a word for other versions of himself causing multiversal mischief with the course of the “Sacred Timeline”), Loki must crisscross countless universes and realities on the hunt for a female version of himself — Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino). The pair eventually team up and uncover a vast conspiracy at the heart of the TVA, turning them both into fugitives and finally leading them to the man behind the curtain. The season finale introduces Jonathan Majors’ Kang, a major multiverse-crossing figure who will become the next Thanos-level threat in the MCU.

As recently confirmed by Kevin Feige himself, the choice that Kang presents to Loki and Sylvie has had direct reverberations on the direction the rest of the MCU has taken. They can peacefully take over his job as the main overseer of the multiverse, or kill him and unleash … well, madness. The ever-impulsive Sylvie chooses the latter, of course, and causes the “Sacred Timeline” to split off into endless branches of chaos. If “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is any indication, it certainly seems as if that one act will have many, many consequences to come.