26 brutally honest questions we have after watching 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'

Singh: Maybe the 2012 Battle of New York, aka the one with the alien invasion, normalized bizarre things happening in the big city.

But still, you can't help but wonder, where was fellow NY-based Avenger Peter Parker/Spider-Man when Strange, Wong, and America faced Gargantos in NYC?

Acuna: He was taking his GED. Kidding.

This continues to be a weird thing with these superhero movies when we know multiple Marvel characters live in New York City. Are monsters in NYC just normalized now because of the events of "The Avengers"? When one hero shows up, everyone else knows it's handled and under control? No one thinks to check in?

Acuna: Why is no one regularly checking in on Wanda unless they selfishly need something from her like when Strange seeks her out at the film's start? Then Strange has the audacity to suggest they can get her back on a lunchbox.

Sir, this woman doesn't care about merchandise. She's grieving the loss of the love of her life. Read the room.

Singh: Throughout "Multiverse of Madness," people kept asking Strange if he was happy. If only they cared enough about Wanda to ask her how she is feeling, then maybe she wouldn't have succumbed to the dark side.

Wanda has witnessed loss after loss: her parents, her brother Pietro, then Vision. She's utterly alone, But everyone seems too preoccupied with their own lives to notice how badly she's hurting.

Acuna: Wanda needs the support of some loved ones and everyone has failed her. I know Hawkeye and Falcon have had their own issues on their own Disney+ shows, but give a girl a call.

Acuna: As a quick reminder for those who didn't watch the Disney+ series "WandaVision," Wanda held a New Jersey town called Westview hostage so she could live out a fantasy life with a fake family and avoid grieving the loss of Vision.

At the end of the series, she was allowed to fly off without any repercussions. Do people just not care about New Jersey? (As a New Jersey native, my state is constantly dunked on, so I get it.)

Maybe everyone knows that they really can't do anything to stop Wanda since she's one of the most powerful Marvel characters and it's better not to rattle her any further.

Singh: I definitely think that her amount of power is intimidating and people are scared of her. Who would dare to challenge her, though? It's clear based on "WandaVision" that no one checked up on her after the events of "Infinity War" and "Endgame."

Acuna: Surely there was somewhere better to take her?

Singh: For a sorcerer, Strange really does make some bad choices. I feel like he makes such snap decisions. See: His actions in "Spider-Man: No Way Home."

Acuna: I still don't understand how he didn't think to make a spell that simply made everyone forget about Mysterio.

Singh: Kamar-Taj cannot be the only place where she would have been safe. They could've called in a favor with sorcerers elsewhere.

Acuna: Even if they didn't go to another Sanctum Sanctorum, couldn't they have called in a favor with S.H.I.E.L.D. or some other group? Don't they have Captain Marvel on speed dial? This just felt like convenient writing to me.

Singh: I'll give her a pass on that since she's 14. She's suddenly being confronted by a witch in pursuit of her and is probably too stunned to process it all.

Acuna: I think you're being too nice. Minutes before this scene, America reprimanded Strange for leading Wanda straight to her location. She's been trying to dodge Wanda and her demons through the multiverse. It seems strange for her to make such a simple slip up in exchange for a quick jump scare.

Honestly, I'm just trying to understand why there are so many random puddles in Kamar-Taj. Maintenance has really gone down since the Ancient One departed.

Acuna: This was so confusing to me. Could they not afford to bring Paul Bettany back?

Singh: To me, this was one of the most puzzling aspects of the movie. Vision was the love of Wanda's life and there was a whole show dedicated to her and a version of Vision that she created using her mind.

But yet, Vision is only acknowledged maybe twice in "Multiverse of Madness" and Wanda repeatedly emphasizes that she wants to be reunited with her sons (with no mention of Vision).

It seems strange — pun intended — that the versions of Wanda in alternate universes seem to be single moms with no Vision in the picture.

Acuna: Right?

Elizabeth Olsen gave this response to Collider when asked why Wanda didn't go searching for Vision in another universe: "We liked the idea of her being on her own. The idea really is that the most important thing once you become a mother in the world are your children, and that's why."

That feels like the PR response Marvel told Olsen to give press. Even if she wasn't searching for Vision, it feels strange that he wouldn't exist in other universes.

Acuna: Did we just forget that there's this other version of Vision out there in the world somewhere that's a carbon copy of the original Vision?

Singh: I still have not forgotten that Wanda told her version of Vision "we'll say hello again" near the end of the finale before saying goodbye.

Acuna: Exactly. Why am I watching these Disney+ Marvel shows if major details like this are just ignored? Is this a plot point that will come up again in "Armor Wars"?

Acuna: I'm sorry, but where's the TVA and why don't they intervene in this movie at all when we see variants?

Heading into this film, I really thought that the "Loki" finale was going to have some sort of larger impact on a film called "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."

On that finale, Earth-616 (the Marvel Cinematic Universe) started to branch off into a bunch of alternate realities. Viewers were told that could lead to a potential multiversal war.

In "Multiverse of Madness," we see that there are all of these other universes (America says she's been to 73) where other variant characters exist. Were those variants always there or did these other realms pop up because of "Loki"?

Are we supposed to assume that the "Loki" finale caused the creation of multiple universes? Or are we supposed to ignore the events of "Loki" entirely?

Singh: Yeah, so, it seems like the events of "Loki" led to the multiverse. In a recent interview with Marvel.com, Marvel Studios' president Kevin Feige implied that the "Loki" finale resulted in "a spell to go wrong in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home,' which leads to the entire Multiverse going quite mad."

Sorry Feige, but I don't think "Multiverse of Madness" explicitly showed that the events of "Loki" led to what we're seeing in either of those films.

Acuna: Not at all. That's really confusing and we're watching all of these shows and movies, often multiple times.

Singh: I initially thought that the Disney+ shows were supposed to function as connective tissues within the MCU, but I'm not seeing the benefit of watching six (and counting) shows. I think part of the issue is that these shows and movies often film back-to-back or concurrently and there are a lot of constantly moving pieces.

To put things into context, Olsen jumped into production on "Multiverse of Madness" immediately after filming "WandaVision."

"Spider-Man: No Way Home" was filming at the same time as "Multiverse of Madness," Raimi told Collider.

The filmmaker said that meetings were held with the directors of other projects to make sure everyone was on the same page about what the characters had experienced.

Raimi also said that the script, penned by "Loki" writer Michael Waldron, was "constantly changing."

Script changes, even last-minute ones, are not uncommon in the MCU, but Raimi telling the publication that the script would "often change minutes before" shooting seems absolutely chaotic.

Singh: Wanda makes a lot of horrific decisions in "Multiverse of Madness," namely going on a multiversal murder spree in pursuit of a teenager's power — which, written out, looks really bad.

But yet, I think fans can still empathize with her to a certain degree because of the amount of suffering she's experienced.

This obviously doesn't excuse her actions, but you can see some of the factors that led her to this point. I also think that the movie attributes her uncharacteristic actions to the corruption caused by the Darkhold.

Acuna: Are we really supposed to believe that Wanda would do all of this to be reunited with her children after the events of "WandaVision"?

I thought the whole bit about it being the Darkhold's fault was awfully convenient. I thought it served as an excuse for Wanda to take a really dark turn super fast in this film.

This whole idea of Wanda turning into a murder machine just because she couldn't reconnect with her kids felt a bit unbelievable to me and undid a lot of the beautiful storytelling about dealing with grief and one's mental health in "WandaVision."

Furthermore, it really bothered me that this woman in pain got buried under a mountain of rocks by the film's end while the narcissistic, arrogant man (Doctor Strange) who was told that he's actually the greatest danger to the entire multiverse got to walk scot free to live out his life happily.

Maybe there was some larger message to take from that, but I'm not sure it was done on purpose. After her entire journey in this film, Wanda didn't get any sort of satisfactory resolution when she was just someone who needed a friend to help get her through a dark period. Honestly, I thought the script could've used a woman's touch.

I want justice for Wanda!

Singh: Let's start the campaign for justice for Wanda.

"Multiverse of Madness" really does lean on the Darkhold to explain Wanda's drastic shift from grieving Avenger to all-powerful villain. And to an extent, you can credit her actions to the book's corruption.

But Wanda being OK with killing a teenager and exploiting her powers in order to be reunited with her sons in another universe doesn't seem very maternal to me.

For what it's worth, the mid-credits scene of the movie alludes to Doctor Strange not being off the hook for his actions.

Acuna: This is one of the film's most frustrating parts. The group kept downplaying the Scarlet Witch to Strange saying she wasn't a concern and continuously suggested that he was the real threat they needed to worry about.

So much for being the world's greatest minds.

Singh: I think they really downplayed the severity of Wanda because they were so biased from their experience with that universe's Strange.

But still, the Illuminati's purpose is to address threats, so they really should have taken Strange more seriously. They had one job.

Acuna: I know this isn't really important, but I couldn't stop thinking about this while watching the film both times because it's difficult to believe that Wanda would regress so much into a villain trope that she wouldn't stop to whip up some protective foot gear.

Do people who dreamwalk just not feel the things going on in the other body? Wanda was walking over glass at one point and in some dirty tunnel water during her chaotic murder sequence. I'm sorry, but I'm just not buying that any woman wouldn't have paused to make sure their feet weren't getting cut up.

Honestly, this seemed like a way to show off Olsen's feet for people who fetishize that sort of thing. Otherwise, it felt like an aesthetic choice for some sort of horror campiness.

Singh: This is a completely valid and brutally honest question.

I can't be the only one who was distracted by the impractical nature of Wanda going on a killing spree while barefoot.

It's a choice to have her appear like that and I do wonder if Olsen had any thoughts on that decision. The Wanda variant easily could have been shown with shoes on from the start and that would have completely avoided any questions about her walking barefoot.

Acuna: At least give the girl some socks!

Acuna: Who wanted to see Sir Patrick Stewart make his big entrance into the MCU just to have his head ripped apart minutes later?

What a punch to the gut for fans who have loved that character for over 20 years. I didn't sign up for that. His last death on screen in 2017's "Logan" was handled perfectly.

Even Stewart told Variety he was originally "unsure" if it was wise to reprise the role.

There was no need for this other than for Disney to tease its upcoming animated "X-Men '97" series. I'm not sure if you noticed, but the upcoming show's theme song is mentioned in the film's credits. Marvel did Charles Xavier dirty.

Singh: To be frank, this seemed like an easy payday. "No Way Home" did an incredible job at bringing back previous Marvel actors in a meaningful and thrilling way (even if everyone was already in on the secret). But at some point, if other movies follow suit, it will become gimmicky.

I also feel like bringing back a character like Stewart's Charles Xavier, whose arc was already resolved, retroactively tarnishes the viewing experience of great films like "Logan." But maybe that's just me.

Singh: Now, I feel a little better about hoping that he'd show up as an aerospace engineer in "WandaVision."

To me, his cameo in "Multiverse of Madness" was like a little fan-service crumb. Because variants don't necessarily have to look exactly alike and be played by the same actor, I feel like they could easily use that logic to cast someone else for the upcoming reboot.

Personally, I'm all for Krasinski returning. His appearance in "Multiverse of Madness" was so fleeting that we didn't even get to properly see his powers in action.

Acuna: Exactly! It was a painfully annoying tease for fans to see the actor they've been hoping to see in this role for years only for Marvel to say "just kidding" by killing the character in a brutal fashion minutes later.

Krasinski had one of the largest audience reactions in the two showings I attended when he appeared and again a few minutes later when he oh-so-briefly showed off a glimpse of his stretching abilities.

Marvel hasn't officially announced that Krasinski is playing Reed Richards outside of "Multiverse of Madness." But, now that the studio has given fans a taste of "The Office" actor in the role, I think it would be tough for fans to accept any other actor moving forward.

If Krasinski isn't back as Richards and this becomes another Ralph Bohner situation, fans aren't going to be happy.

Singh: After the flop that was the 2015 "Fantastic Four" reboot, I feel like Marvel will want to tread lightly with this movie. Now that they lost director Jon Watts, I'm even more concerned about how this film will turn out.

Acuna: I think we're all hoping that Krasinski will play Reed Richards and that his real-life partner, Emily Blunt, will appear as his superhero wife, Sue Storm, in a reboot.

Acuna: I have to imagine Earth-838's Sue Storm, all of the X-Men, the Inhumans, and a number of other heroes are not going to be OK with the fact that a murder-happy witch killed their loved ones.

Assuming Wanda's alive, is someone going to hold her responsible for killing off some of that world's greatest heroes? Certainly, they'll think she's a massive threat to the multiverse now. Or does the innocent Wanda get blamed for this? How does that work?

Is this going to lead to people from that universe seeking out revenge on Earth-616 (where the MCU takes place)? Is this going to lead to an incursion or to the events that we'll see in Marvel's upcoming "Secret Wars" series?

Singh: It's only fair that someone (Wanda) should answer for these crimes, but the whereabouts of that person are left unclear by the end of the movie. So how would anyone on Earth-838 locate her? Do they even care enough to go out of their way to find Wanda?

I just can't stop thinking about how Krasinski's Reed, in the minor amount of dialogue he had in this film, mentioned empathizing with Wanda because he too has children, and she just turned him into string cheese.

If anyone should get revenge, it should be Sue Storm.

Acuna: We have been waiting to see who bought Avengers Tower in the Earth-616 universe. Hopefully, this is how they tell us that it's owned by the Baxter Foundation, leading to the introduction of the Fantastic Four in the MCU.

Singh: The new owner of Avengers Tower continues to be one of the biggest outstanding mysteries in the MCU. Seriously, Tom Holland, can you just tell everyone who purchased the building?

Acuna: For a movie about the multiverse, we barely got to see any of them. America mentioned going to 73 universes.

And don't tell me it would've been confusing. "Everything Everywhere All At Once" handled traveling to multiple universes just fine.

Singh: I couldn't even process all the glimpses of the multiverse that were shown during that one, brief scene with Strange and America. For a movie whose title is "Multiverse of Madness," I don't think it entirely lived up to the hype.

Acuna: It's been six years since "Doctor Strange." Are we just ignoring the end-credits scene from that movie and moving on? Where's the payoff?

Singh: It seems incredibly bizarre that the end-credits scene wasn't acknowledged or resolved in this movie. And I'd love to know at what point the execs at Marvel Studios decided that the multiverse would be the next focal point of the MCU following the conclusion of the Infinity Saga.

When I saw Chiwetel Ejiofor in the trailers for "Multiverse of Madness," I really thought we'd get a continuation of his journey that was teased at the end of "Doctor Strange." Instead, we got a Mordo variant who drugged Strange with some tea and took him to the Illuminati because he thought his presence was a threat to their universe.

Acuna: Agreed. It was disappointing that the trailers teased that we may see a darker version of Mordo here, but that wasn't the case.

Maybe we'll finally get that in a third "Doctor Strange" film. It doesn't seem like that story's being dropped all together from the MCU since Strange references his Mordo's dark turn briefly in "Multiverse of Madness."

Acuna: I understood that they were playing into one of the biggest horror movie tropes, but it felt silly that these three intelligent characters stopped dumbfounded in a tunnel as Wanda was chasing them.

Strange clearly had a plan, but I don't know why he didn't tell Christine to go and run on ahead with America to get her to safety. This scene dragged out for so long that the audience in my opening-night showing started laughing and a man in my theater yelled out loud, "Keep going!"

Singh: Again, Strange is not the best decision maker. But if a witch was within a few steps of catching up to me, I'd run without looking back.

Singh: Her fate is left unclear, with the scene showing her collapsing the mountain using her powers. But there's a flash of her red powers, which gives a glimmer of hope that perhaps she used her abilities to protect herself as Wundagore collapsed.

Acuna: You just don't kill one of the strongest characters in the MCU by dropping a building on her. That's too easy.

Olsen told Extra she wants to hear what fans want to see from Wanda next in the MCU. You don't just create one of Marvel's most popular female characters and then instantly shelve them.

Singh: I highly doubt they'd kill off the most powerful character in the MCU in such an ambiguous and unceremoniously way.

But I also wonder where the character can go from here. We've seen her become a hero, then a villain. Based on how she came to see the error of her ways by the end of the movie, I wonder what her next path would be.

Acuna: This felt like the most random, unnecessary part of "Multiverse of Madness."

I get wanting to see two versions of Strange battle it out, but it felt like someone on the team just said, "Hey, you know what would be really cool here?" This was the result. Personally, it felt like this scene could've been cut.

Singh: A Strange vs. Strange magical music fight wasn't on my bingo card. This scene was so funny and I can only assume that was unintentional. Or maybe it was meant to be kind of campy because this is a Raimi film.

I felt like I had some kind of out-of-body experience in the theater, where I was in complete disbelief that this scene was included in "Multiverse of Madness." When Strange defeated Strange with that single note at the end, I completely lost it.

Acuna: Near the film's end, America tells Strange she can't go up against Wanda because she doesn't know how to control her powers. Strange simply tells her she can control them, America decides he's right, and just like that the teen miraculously has a handle on the power that's been a huge issue the entire movie.

This was one of the movie's least believable moments. Seconds after this pep talk, America is able to land multiple punches on Wanda after zero training. It felt like Marvel was trying too hard to deliver some sort of female empowerment moment.

Even so, I don't think anyone wanted to see Wanda get punched by a teen.

Singh: America's sudden control of her powers definitely felt forced. It's formulaic for a character to start off as a non-expert and gain some kind of proficiency by the end of a movie, but this felt way too sudden and forced.

Let's be honest, Strange isn't that good at giving motivational pep talks.

Singh: Marvel hasn't officially announced plans for a follow-up movie. But standalone MCU franchises typically get three or more movies. The mid-credit scene with Charlize Theron's debut seems like it would need to be unpacked in a sequel, rather than folded into another MCU character's story.

Acuna: Regardless of the film's CinemaScore, which is the second-lowest for a Marvel movie, the movie debuted with $450 million worldwide on its opening weekend.

The sequel's $185 million domestic opening isn't only the biggest box-office weekend of the year so far, but it's also the 11th largest opening weekend of all time. The film is easily going to outperform the full box-office run of 2016's "Doctor Strange," which grossed over $677 million worldwide in its entire run with an opening weekend of $85 million.

With those numbers, a third film in the franchise almost feels like a given.

Acuna: When I previewed the first 20 minutes of this movie originally on April 28, I was really excited by the introduction of Xochitl Gomez's young hero. She was speaking Spanish for most of her entry into the film and it really seemed like she was going to be a main character.

Though she was in a majority of the movie, she became a one-note character for the rest of the film as this girl that Strange was trying to hide from Wanda. It felt odd to me that someone as powerful in magic as Wanda, who had every spell possible available to them, needed America's powers in order to get to her children.

You're telling me there wasn't something else in the Darkhold that could've made that possible? It felt like "Multiverse of Madness" was just the latest way for Marvel to use one of its vehicles ("Black Widow"/"Hawkeye") to introduce another younger Avenger.

Singh: I too was disappointed by the way America was mostly used as a plot device in this movie. I think Gomez gave such a great and engaging performance that I was left wanting more of her.

Acuna: I'm honestly not even sure which incursion Clea was talking about. Are we discussing how he dreamwalked in a dead body or the fact that he was in universe 838 where the Illuminati were murdered?

It looked like she was bringing him back to the Dark Dimension (seen in 2016's "Doctor Strange"). Why do they have to go there to fix it?

Singh: My understanding of incursions is that they're triggered by dreamwalking and using the Darkhold. So wouldn't Wanda have also caused an incursion?

And aren't incursions exactly the kind of threat that the Illuminati was formed to deal with? There's got to be a version of the Illuminati in the main MCU universe.

Acuna: I have to imagine that this isn't the last we'll see of America Chavez. I'm guessing she's part of whatever Marvel is working towards by introducing characters like Yelena, Ms. Marvel, and Kate Bishop.

Plus, Doctor Strange hinted that her moms are probably out there in the multiverse somewhere.

Singh: How many more rookie superheroes does Marvel need to sprinkle into their shows and films before they finally announce some kind of Young Avengers adaptation?