Spider-Man: Far From Home - Everything You Need To Know About Marvel's Multiverse

4. There's A Difference Between Alternate 'Worlds' And 'Dimensions'

Doctor Strange Dark Dimension
Marvel Studios

In the wake of Far From Home's multiverse tease, there were a few bemused commenters online who didn't seem to get the fuss. 2016's Doctor Strange - at least according to them - had already introduced the concept, but they're committing an easy mistake.

Scott Derrickson's supernatural flick may feature lots of trippy, inventive visuals, but it doesn't actually showcase the multiverse. It actually highlights several different pocket dimensions, realities that exist within our own, such as the Dark Dimension, meaning there's a delineation to be made between 'dimension' and 'reality', even if Nick Fury interchanges the term in in the trailer for Far From Home.

According to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, a 'dimension' is a "universe or realm containing space, time, matter and energy". Asgard and the Nine Realms are all technically dimensions, while Strange deals with alternate dimensions such as Dormammu's all the time in the comics.

So, going forward, we can expect to see alternate dimensions and alternate universes. The important thing to remember, though, is that each alternate universe will invariably contain alternate dimensions too. Granted it can get confusing, but they're a distinction to be made.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.