Spider-Man: No Way Home Trailer - 10 Biggest Takeaways
2. Noticeably Out Of Character
When Stephen Strange first began learning the mystic arts in Kamar-Taj, he was pretty reckless. He would happily steal books from under Wong’s nose in the library, and play around with the Eye of Agamotto before thinking about the consequences.
Since then however, he has taken his role as the Sorcerer Supreme far more seriously. He defended the Time Stone with his life, took action when Loki came to Earth, and spent his time on the battlefield against Thanos keeping it from flooding. Stephen once even threatened to let Peter Parker die if it meant protecting the Time Stone and the universe, yet, in the No Way Home trailer, he plays with dangerous magic to help the same Peter Parker make everyone forget that he is Spider-Man.
This then opens a path for the multiverse to intersect, bringing the likes of Alfred Molina’s Doc Oc to town. Something so irresponsible seems ridiculously out of character for Dr. Strange. He should have told Peter the spell was far too dangerous, and not even considered risking the integrity of the timeline for such little reward.
There has to be some kind of explanation for this. Since it is just a trailer, this scene could have been taken out of context, or could it be something different? Could Strange have been replaced with a Skrull, or something even more sinister perhaps, like Mephisto? Or could we have just seen the evil Doctor Strange Variant that is yet to appear in season one of What If...?