Doctor Strange 2: Cameos We Could See
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness has had an interesting journey to the big screen. It was first announced back in July 2019 with Scott Derrickson returning to direct giving a release date of May 7th 2021. Then in January 2020, just before the Coronavirus pandemic swept the world, it was announced that Derrickson would not helm the sequel due to creative differences with the studio.
Shortly afterwards, Sam Raimi was announced to be the movie’s new director. After a script rewrite, a new release date of November 5th 2021 was given, before being shifted yet again to March 25th 2022. Principle photography on the film took place between February and April 2022.
It was then announced that a significant amount of re-shoots would take place. The release date for the film was shifted yet again to the 6th of May 2022, almost an entire year later than the original release date! The re-shoots were extensive and only finished up in November 2021.
Along with these re-shoots came many rumours; one of which being that a series of cameos were being added into the film, in in the vein of Spider-Man: No Way Home. This logic is understandable in the sense that if Doctor Strange 2 hopes to recapture the glorious nostalgia that No Way Home did, they are going to have to bring in some big names.
In this article, we will go through some of the rumoured cameos that could crop up in the movie and discuss the likelihood of them being accurate.
Ben Affleck As Daredevil
Although we got confirmation in December that Charlie Cox will indeed be Daredevil in the MCU going forward, he may not be the only actor make to cameo as Matt Murdock in an MCU film. A recent rumour has been doing the rounds claiming that Marvel Studios have spoken to Ben Affleck with regards to making a cameo as The Man Without Fear in Doctor Strange 2.
This comes via a leaker on Twitter with the handle @bigscreenleaks, who claims that Marvel have reached out to Affleck’s team to set up him making a cameo as Daredevil in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This apparently took place in late 2021 and the leaker has not heard any updates since on whether Affleck will in reprise the role or not. As always with rumours of this unverified nature, take it with a good sized grain of salt.
Although I think that this would be a really cool cameo to see, I personally don’t have much faith that it will come to fruition. The main reason for this is Ben Affleck’s tumultuous relationship with superhero movies.
Back in 2006 when he was asked if he would ever play a superhero again, he said no because of his time as Daredevil. A few years later in 2013, he actually went as far as to say that he regretted ever playing Daredevil and he has continually reiterated similar statements several times in the years since.
Obviously, Affleck did in fact play a superhero again eventually, appearing as Batman in 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and in other various DCEU movies. He is due to make another appearance as The Dark Knight in The Flash later this year, however he has confirmed that this will mark his final time playing the character onscreen.
At this point in time, Affleck has been burnt by superhero movies several times. Between his tangible regret for ever having played Matt Murdock and the strenuous personal experiences that he had playing Bruce Wayne, I do not see him relenting for the sake of this cameo. He quite simply does not need the money, or the stress that would come with it.
That said, I do hope that I am wrong as I would actually really like to see him make another appearance as Daredevil. There is also the fact that this would only be a brief cameo and not a full movie shoot that he would have to accept, making the cameo somewhat more likely.
Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier
Although there doesn’t seem to be any apparent reason why The Winter Soldier would appear in Multiverse Of Madness, Sebastian Stan recently gave an interview letting us know that he is not in the movie. He told Collider; “I am not in Doctor Strange 2. I promise.”
While it is clearly not above stars to lie about whether they appear in an MCU movie, (*cough* Andrew Garfield *cough*) I don’t see any particular reason for Stan to lie about this one. Bucky Barnes turning up in a Doctor Strange movie wouldn’t exactly be a ground-breaking revelation.
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine
Logan was such a fitting finale for the iconic version of Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman that it would really take something special to justify this rumoured cameo. Back when Jackman was doing the interviews to promote Logan’s release, he was asked if he would ever consider playing the character again.
His response seemed pretty concrete at the time, with the actor saying; “If [The Avengers] was on the table when I made my decision, it certainly would have made me pause. That’s for sure. Because I always love the idea of him within that dynamic, with the Hulk obviously, with Iron Man but there’s a lot of smarter people with MBAs who can’t figure that out [laughter]. You never know. At the moment, honestly, if I really did have them there, I probably wouldn’t have said this is the last. It just feels like this is the right time to leave the character.”
That said, in August of last year, (in the midst of the Doctor Strange 2 reshoots,) the above photo went viral. Hugh Jackman seemed to be back in Wolverine-esque shape when the photo was taken and the rumour at the time was that he could return for the planned Secret Wars movie. However, what if the return is actually within the new Doctor Strange movie.
This would actually make more sense to me, as if Jackman was to return as Wolverine, I would assume that it would only be very briefly. Personally, I don’t see him returning for multiple movies, which an appearance in Secret Wars would suggest.
If he turned up within the multiverse in the Doctor Strange sequel, he could have his wish of joining the MCU granted via a brief cameo and then the star could retire the character for good. Let us not forget that Jackman is now in his 50’s and whilst that may not sound too old in the grand scheme of things, keeping up the ripped physique of Wolverine as he ages will inevitably become increasingly difficult.
Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man
Spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home will follow.
Following the original big screen version of the Wallcrawler making a glorious reappearance alongside Andrew Garfield in No Way Home, fans are begging for more. Whilst there are rumours doing the rounds claiming that Garfield could be joining the Venom universe, there are also rumblings of Tobey Maguire working with Sam Raimi once again.
Due to the past shared by the director and the actor, it would be a nice touch to see him included in Doctor Strange 2. For long time fans of Spider-Man movies such as myself, this would be awesome to witness. Again I would speculate that this would be somewhat of a brief cameo.
The reason for this being; I would assume that Andrew Garfield is more passionate about playing Spider-Man again than Tobey Maguire is. However, both Spidey stars were responsible for the overwhelmingly positive response that No Way Home got, so I would assume that Sony have picked up on that too.
Therefore, they will likely want to capitalise on that hype and use both actors again. Making a movie centred around Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man along with Tom Hardy’s Venom makes sense. Making a movie centred around Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, (whom we haven’t seen in 15 years,) makes less sense.
Hence, a more fleeting cameo within a movie centred around another character would make far more sense. Again, this would allow Tobey Maguire to put a nice bow on his version of Spider-Man and pay respect to Sam Raimi, who helped to give him his start as the iconic superhero.
Chris Evans as The Human Torch
We last seen Chris Evans in the MCU as an old man at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Having him re-appear as a much younger man, with a buzzcut and an overly cocky attitude could be interesting. Strange would certainly be taken aback from seeing a more arrogant version of his stoic elderly heroic colleague.
Although Steve Rodgers and Steven Strange never got too much play together onscreen, Strange is undoubtedly aware of who Captain Rodgers was. This could bring with it a really interesting dynamic between the two and lead to some laughs.
The one thing that is making me doubt this rumour is the fact that Marvel have already announced plans for The Fantastic Four within the MCU. No Way Home director, Jon Watts is bringing Marvel’s first family into the MCU pretty soon, so it would be odd to introduce an older version of Johnny Storm before the newer version is introduced.
Patrick Stewart/James MacAvoy as Professor Xavier
At the time of writing, there have been no plans announced to bring the X-Men into the MCU. Although the previously announced upcoming Fantastic Four movie contradicts the rumoured Chris Evans cameo, this isn’t an issue with the X-Men as of yet.
Therefore, like with the Wolverine cameo, there is a chance that Charles Xavier could appear in some form. Sadly, the rumours don’t go as far as to mention whether it will be the Patrick Stewart or the James MacAvoy version of the character that shows up. Although if I had to guess, the more iconic Patrick Stewart iteration is probably the most likely.
The one thing that is making me doubt the rumours of a Professor X cameo is that I reckon a Wolverine cameo is more likely. I don’t know if I can see them giving us two X-Men related cameos in the same movie, fearing that it may distract from the plot at hand.
Thomas Jane as Punisher
Although we do technically already have a Frank Castle in the MCU, played by the brilliant Jon Bernthal, a Thomas Jane cameo has been rumoured. Thomas Jane always seems eager to play the part of The Punisher whenever he gets the chance, so I can imagine the actor being keen on the idea of a cameo.
Although his Punisher movie was far from the best, I do like Thomas Jane as an actor. I just have a few reservations about this cameo, with the first being that I really hope that it doesn’t undo Jon Bernthal’s version of Castle. What he was able to do with that character on the Netflix shows was incredible and to see that undone would be a travesty.
The other condition I have is that they do the ‘Dirty Laundry‘ version of Thomas Jane Punisher, rather than the more reserved one from the solo movie. If somehow you haven’t already seen ‘Dirty Laundry,’ do yourself a favour and watch it below.
Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze
Although there haven’t been any official plans announced regarding Johnny Blaze appearing in the MCU, we did report on a potential casting rumour from last year. As awesome as I’m sure it would be to see Norman Reedus play the character, no one will ever do it quite like Nic Cage did in those awful adaptions from the late 2000’s.
As can be seen in the video above, no one does anything quite like Nicolas Cage does. Seeing him cameo in the film could be slightly distracting, but I personally would love to see it.
There you have it; the biggest rumoured cameos for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. We did not have time to cover all of the cameo rumours surrounding this movie, because there are a lot. Below you will see an image which includes every one of the rumoured cameo appearances.
What do you think the likelihood of these cameos are? Are there any that haven’t been mentioned that you would like to see? Let us know in the comments section down below.
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