What Does The Ending Of Doctor Strange Really Mean?
The multiverse is open for business...
It goes without saying that Doctor Strange was one of the most important films Marvel and Kevin Feige have ever made. Coming at the start of Phase 3 with an established brand behind it and a model so tightly planned that it's become a point of criticism for DC fanboys to latch onto, Strange was the key to mixing up the formula and opening up even more possibilities.
It was also something of a passion project for Feige, who has expressed his desire to get the film off the ground for years, and who seems to have fought hard to cast his first choice Benedict Cumberbatch as Strange. He can't have lost too many nights to sleeplessness after seeing how well Scott Derrickson did with the film, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a major, major gamble for the studio.
Luckily, it's excellent. It's not a top five Marvel movie, but that's an incredible ask (particularly for a new character introduction) and critics have flocked to praise it. If the box office follows as it should (it opened very strongly), the blossoms and possible reverberations for the future of the MCU can be massive, and there are already hints in that ending that show just what they could be. It's just a matter of determining the meaning.
Here's a comprehensive decoding of Doctor Strange's Ending...
OBVIOUSLY, SPOILER ALERT!