Doctor Strange do without the time stone:
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will have to answer plenty of questions. It is because of Doctor Strange and his associates that we’ve been able to know so much about the role that the Time Stone and other Infinity Stones play in keeping the laws of nature in balance. But now that Thanos reduced all of the Infinity Stones to atoms, what purpose do Doctor Strange & the Masters of the Mystic Arts hold in this Universe?
So far we’ve been thinking that Scarlet Witch will actually be the madness in the Multiverse. That may be true up to an extent but the real madness has to be because of the absence of the Mind Stone. Strange used the stone to keep major threats like Dormammu away. With the Infinity Stones gone, word will spread out and Earth will again become ground zero for such massive beings of chaos.
The Avengers now have a time machine readily available for use. So, will these Mystical beings go back in time to bring back the Mind Stone? That will open up the same problem that the Ancient One warned Bruce about. Imagine a scenario where Doctor Strange goes back in time, Barters with the Ancient One and brings the Time Stone back to his own reality. This would create an alternate branch in the timeline. Doctor Strange 2 should be about preventing chaos in the multiverse, and following this would rather create another reality in the multiverse. So, all of this will have to be answered very carefully.
The easiest situation to move forward would have to be living without the Infinity Stones unless there is another book at Kamar Taj that tells the heroes how the bring the gems back. With that in mind, the Masters of Mystic Arts will have to take on the likes of Dormammu and other beings in some other way. Perhaps Nightmare will only attack Strange and Earth after knowing that the Time Stone is gone.
The second solution could be to bring the Time Stone from another timeline as suggested above. That way Strange would prevent his reality but let the other alternate branched reality go into eternal damnation. This will be the hard choice that Strange may have to make to ensure the survival of his reality. Marvel movies aren’t this dark on a usual basis, but what if Doctor Strange 2 is?
Doing this could bring order back into prime reality, i.e. Earth 616. The masters of the Mystic Arts and the Sorcerer Supreme would go about their business of preventing the Time Stone from there on out. But think about it, if Strange and others do choose to do this, then how are they any better than Thanos? The purple tyrant wanted to create a new Universe at the cost of the one that exists. Strange taking the Time Stone from another reality would be leaving that Universe to rot so he could save his own. This really is the worst-case scenario, and knowing Strange, he wouldn’t let things come to this.
It is a dilemma that only Director Scott Derrickson could solve. So, we just have to wait patiently to see what really happens. Here’s the slate of Phase 4 – Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If? In Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021.
What do you think will be the ultimate solution that gives purpose to Doctor Strange and the Masters of the Mystic Arts? Reach out to me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
