Doctor Strange 2 trailer: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen face off; Patrick Stewart returns in mindbending trailer

It’s Superbowl time in the United States, which means it’s raining trailers and teasers in Hollywood. Starting off the hype train was Marvel’s upcoming extravaganza Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which dropped its first full-length trailer on Monday morning.

The film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the titular role, will see Doctor Strange try to deal with the fallout of his multiverse-fracturing spell from Spider-Man: No Way Home. The trailer shows Benedict’s character trying to enlist the help of some of his friends and comrades as he tries to contain the multiverse fissure taking over his life. It gives us glimpses at Xochitl Gomez’s America Chavez, Marvel’s super secret society the Illuminati, and lots of monsters.

A pivotal moment in the trailer shows a seemingly evil Wanda aka The Scarlet Witch (played by Elizabeth Olsen) face off against Doctor Strange. The final moments of the trailer give us yet another glimpse of the evil Doctor Strange and–for the first time in live-action–Strange Supreme, the character we were introduced to in the Disney+ animated series What If?

But something that got the fans really hyped was the return of Patrick Stewart as the iconic Professor Charles Xavier from X-Men. Although the actor is seen only briefly from behind, his unmistakable voice is heard in the trailer. “I got chills when Professor X spoke. There’s no mistaking that voice,” wrote a fan. Patrick played Professor Xavier, the leader of X-Men, in several films starting with X-Men (2000) right up to Logan (2017).

Multiverse of Madness takes off from both Spider-Man: No Way Home and the Disney+ series WandaVision. It will also include concepts about multiverse introduced in What If? and Loki.

There have been several rumours and reports of big stars making cameos as iconic characters in the film, with names like Tom Cruise, Tobey Maguire, and John Krasinski doing the rounds. None of those faces are in the trailer though so nothing is confirmed so far.

The Sam Raimi film has been described as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first out-and-out horror outing and also stars Chiwetel Ejifor, Benedict Wong, and Rachel McAdams. The film, part of MCU’s Phase 4, releases in theatres on May 6.