It’s time to flick an eye over a recent Reddit post and explore a new Marvel “leak” that seemingly gives us a quick look at concept art for some of the studio’s more imminent projects, including Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Are there spoilers ahead? Who can say. That’s a very existential question.
Briefly muting the chorus of voices screaming “legit” or “fake” is probably a requirement here, as it is with most “leaks” that make their way online. Marvel has been known to tinker with things right up until the last minute, so even some of the real concept art we eventually get to clap our eyes on doesn’t typically fit the mould of what we end up getting.
This new “leak”, which was supposedly offered to a toy manufacturer by Marvel, gives us a fuzzy peek at two of its upcoming Disney+ series, Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye, which are both currently filming stateside. There’s also that aforementioned glimpse of art bits for Doctor Strange 2, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
The “leaked” images have been circulating on social media for a while, and have been subject to much scrutiny from fans, so let’s have a gander…
Hawkeye
Jeremy Renner will reprise his role as Clint Barton in Hawkeye, which will also introduce Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop and Lucky the Pizza Dog. Black Widow‘s Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) will also make an appearance, and the art in this “leak” certainly seems to fit with the behind the scenes images we’ve seen of the show thus far.
Alaqua Cox’s Echo appears to be in the line-up, too, and recent reports have claimed she’ll get her very own spinoff series after Hawkeye, so it seems she’ll be a fairly major addition to the MCU going forward.
Ms.Marvel
Meanwhile in the Ms. Marvel row, we have art for Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan along with her character’s various fan costumes, and what looks to be Aramis Knight in his rumored Kareem/Red Dagger attire.
This series will set up Captain Marvel 2, with Vellani returning in that sequel as Kamala. There’s been no confirmation yet from Marvel that Brie Larson will guest star in any episodes of the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series as Carol Danvers, but it does feel slightly inevitable.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
This is where the “leak” gets more intriguing. In the Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness part of the image, we can see art for Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sorcerer Supreme, Benedict Wong’s Wong, Xochitl Gomez’s new MCU addition America Chavez, Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo and Wanda Maximoff as the Scarlet Witch.
It was confirmed long ago that Elizabeth Olsen would co-star in Marvel’s Doctor Strange sequel, so it’s not exactly a surprise to see her here, but – as many fans have already pointed out – this isn’t Wanda’s more elaborate new costume from WandaVision. However, the costume mismatch could easily be explained away via WandaVision director Matt Shakman’s admission that the team were still working on wrapping post-production on WandaVision while it was in the midst of being released.
The most interesting part of the “leak” is the final character included in the Doctor Strange 2 images. Anyone familiar with the Doctor Strange comics is likely to instantly shout “Clea!” and for good reason. The character is a big part of Doctor Strange’s story going all the way back to 1964’s Strange Tales #126, and the Sorceress Supreme of the Dark Dimension has been heavily rumored to show up in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Here’s the thing about Clea’s introduction in the sequel, though: we’ve had absolutely no casting news for the character to date, and given that the film has already been in production for some time, we suspect that the reason we don’t yet know who’s playing Clea is because …it’s Rachel McAdams.
McAdams featured in the first Doctor Strange solo movie as Dr. Christine Palmer, but it was kind of a thankless role for an actress who deserved much more. It certainly wouldn’t be out of left field for McAdams to become Clea at some point in a film about the multiverse, and much of Phase 4 revolves around themes of transformation – Wanda becomes the Scarlet Witch, Sam Wilson becomes Captain America, Loki may become the God of Stories, and Jane Foster will become Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder.
Something to think about.