Possible villain for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness revealed

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is building up Phase 4, which is all about the multiverse. Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) will tackle it head on in his next solo film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

The movie won’t be out until May 6, 2022. And there hasn’t been much revealed about it aside from the fact that Sam Raimi is stepping up as the new director, and it’s supposed to be one of Marvel’s scariest films yet.

But now, there is finally something more concrete for us to look forward to, thanks to a leak posted on the forum Resetera: a photo of a Multiverse puzzle set that features Strange fighting a monstrous villain known as Shuma-Gorath. You can see the photo in the link here.

This monster isn’t a household name when it comes to Marvel villains, so here’s a description of the character via the Marvel Database wiki:

"Purported to rule over hundreds of dimensions, Shuma-Gorath came to the Earth-Realm over 1,000,000 years ago, along with the other Old Ones. There he ruled the ancient Earth and commanded numerous human sacrifices."

Doctor Strange vs Shuma-Gorath in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?

The description for the product tells us that it depicts an “epic comic-style battle scene.” And Shuma-Gorath being a multi-dimensional creature sounds like it fits the narrative of the film.

It’s possible that Shuma-Gorath is just one of the villains of the film. Sometimes, the merchandising for these movies takes some liberties about the scenes and characters they include. For example, the LEGO Marvel releases (especially for Infinity War and Endgame) mixed and matched elements from newer and older movies, making it confusing to judge exactly what was in the new film and what was something they were just adding for fun.

In addition to that, one of the images of the puzzle features the Scarlet Witch and possibly even America Chavez (I can make out a character wearing a denim jacket) — both of whom are rumored to be in this movie. And if that part is accurate, it may be highly probable that the Shuma-Gorath reference is accurate too.

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h/t IGN