MCU: 10 Characters That Could Make Up The Illuminati

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is next up on Marvel Studios’ impressive movie slate, and thanks to the latest trailer released during Super Bowl Sunday, excitement has just gone through the roof. As if it wasn’t already.

There were genuinely countless Easter eggs, teases, and blink and you’ll miss it moments in the trailer, but without question the biggest and most shocking part was hearing Sir Patrick Stewart’s beautiful voice as Charles Xavier once again.

Not only did this confirm the return of the leader of the X-Men, it all but guaranteed the appearance of the MCU’s iteration of the Illuminati, a team of the Marvel Universe’s smartest and often most powerful characters. As Professor X spoke, Strange was being brought before a row of chairs, with the mutant's words suggesting an audience with the team to answer for his crime of meddling with the multiverse.

With so much history in the comics, and so many characters with the potential to be a part of the outfit on screen, the Illuminati could look like anything at this point. However, based on rumours, theories, and what little we have seen so far, these characters are the most likely and/or most exciting potential additions to the next MCU movie.

This is now a given isn’t it? The trailer showed a glance at the back of Patrick Stewart’s shoulder while hearing his voice, confirming his role in the movie in the same way Hawkeye teased Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin several episodes before he actually appeared in full.

This has been heavily rumoured for a long time, with such theories only gaining more traction since Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home. We may have been faked out in WandaVision with Fietro, but finally the X-Men are coming to the MCU, starting with their leader.

Operating in the multiverse, this isn’t necessarily the exact version of Professor X we have seen in the X-Men universe previously. There were no hints to any involvement with the Illuminati previously, and the character did die at the hands of X-24 in Logan. However having said that, since when has a little thing like death stopped a character from being alive in the world of comic books?

There are still so many questions surrounding Charles Xavier’s appearance in the movie, but based on the trailer it seems certain that he is part of the Illuminati, and may even be at the head of the table. The way he spoke came across as authoritative, with the "we" strongly suggesting that he is talking to his own team.