Doctor Strange 2 Theory: Nightmare's Secret Plan Revealed?
3. Nightmare & The Realm Of Madness
Though he's not been officially announced as being involved, Scott Derrickson has spoken previously about the iconic Doctor Strange villain and his desire to include him in his Strange sequel. Writer C Robert Cargill all but confirmed his involvement too, but even without an overt confession from the creators, there's a pretty big signal that Nightmare is coming. It's right there in the title.
The title of the film also hints heavily at Nightmare because of where he's from. Assuming we're going to see the same backstory for the supremely powerful being as the comics, Nightmare resides in the Dream Dimension, which sits alongside the Realm Of Madness (hence the title), which is an important thing to talk about because it's very likely to be playing a key role for In The Multiverse Of Madness.
Nightmare draws his powers from the consciousness of other beings - as long as there are minds to dream, he will always exist - and he's able to draw astral projections of a dreaming target into his realm and torture them or use them to his heart's dark content. He's far weaker when he leaves his realm, however, but still aspires to take over Doctor Strange's dimension, taking over people's dreams to try to learn how to defeat him and leave the way unguarded.
So what could Nightmare have planned and why would Scarlet Witch be important? Well, the first thing you have to consider is that Wanda, more than any other MCU hero, will be haunted both by dreams and nightmares. And crucially, her life has gone in such a way that she will no doubt be driven - tormented even - by unquenchable, sorrowful desire.
And what would Scarlet Witch want more than anything? What is her dream?
Vision.
What if Nightmare discovers Scarlet Witch in her dreams, draws him to her and torments her with what she wants (pretending to reward her) in the hope of weaponising her against Doctor Strange and helping him conquer Strange's universe? Given access to her subconscious, he could recognise something different in her - her unprecedented powers - and something very alluring about the nature of her powers that might make her a valuable weapon to him.
Here's how Kevin Feige described Scarlet Witch back in 2016, consciously foreshadowing the fact that she - like Dormammu's zealots and like some Sorcerors (including the Ancient One, of course) - could draw power from other dimensions:
"Her powers, she's never had any training, I'm talking about Scarlet Witch. She never had any training; she's figuring it out. Arguably, you could say that that's why her powers are much more chaotic and much more loose in the way that we showcased those light effects. In [Doctor Strange], some of what you might see today, even the cover of Entertainment Weekly, it's much tighter. It's all about focus. It's all about pulling energies from other dimensions in an organized and purposeful fashion, which is why they can do a lot more than she can in, at least, a much more precise way."
We've already seen one villain use her to his own ends, but Ultron was too self-involved and too arrogant to even know what he had under his nose. He could have used Scarlet Witch as the weapon he wanted to destroy the Earth and instead he just used her and her brother as glorified henchmen. Given Nightmare's relationship with the multiverse and the dark realms, count on him being more acutely aware of her potential.
And in order to turn her powers against the multiverse and make it his own, Nightmare would only have to tap into her mental condition to start to unravel her. If he was able to amplify those powers using the dark magic of the Realm Of Madness - and there was precedent in Doctor Strange's first movie to suggest that other dimensions' powers (in that case the Dark Dimension) were greater, leading to the Ancient One's near-immortality - he could be in a position to take over.
All he needs is to take his chance of a way in...
[Continued...]