Doctor Strange 2’s Tom Cruise, Professor X, and Illuminati theories, explained

Marvel fans are spinning up their speculation engines today, after hearing a voice that sounded so very much like Sir Patrick Stewart in Sunday night’s Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness Super Bowl trailer.

Stephen Strange is going to be brought before a mysterious tribunal in Marvel’s new movie. Comic book-knowers already believe they are able to determine who sits in which seven chairs.

However, it is not! This Illuminati. Marvel One that includes everyone, from Professor X up to Iron Man.

Who are Marvel’s Illuminati?

Image Credit: Brian Michael Bendis, Steve McNiven/Marvel Comics

Brian Michael Bendis, a writer and Steve McNiven, an artist created the Illuminati in the pages New Avengers, but they were most active during writer Jonathan Hickman’s tenure on the Avengers, which eventually culminated in Secret WarsThe most well-respected Marvel Comics crossover ever.

In the Marvel Comics universe, the Illuminati is what its purported to be in the real world, but with a superhero spin: A covert cabal of the most powerful superheroes on Earth who assemble to assert their own wills on the planet’s problems. In the Marvel Universe context, “most powerful” doesn’t mean the physically strongest, but rather intellectual and political power.

Members of the Illuminati typically break down as Earth’s greatest minds (Mister Fantastic and Tony Stark) and superheroic leaders of nations (mutant figurehead Charles Xavier and actual sitting monarchs like Black Panther, Namor the Submariner, and Black Bolt of the Inhumans). Doctor Strange, as Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme, also usually gets a seat at the table, while other members have included Beast of the X-Men (after the Professor’s death), and Captain America (who was voted out and mind-wiped after he swore to expose their unethical choices).

In comics history, there is an Illuminati mention Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of MadnessMarvel fan fans will find this a very exciting opportunity: Professor X, Mister Fantastic could have their way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the 2000s-era X-Men films, Charles Xavier was played by Patrick Stewart. Any hint that Marvel Studios may have pulled the trigger to include the X-Men in the MCU will raise eyebrows.

The Fantastic Four are a core Marvel Comics character, but they have not had much success on the big-screen. Marvel Studios currently is working with Fantastic Four to make a movie. Spider-Man has no way homeDirector Jon Watts is not well-known. Mister Fantastic would appear in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of MadnessIt would mark the debut of the Fantastic Four characters in the MCU.

Is it a common practice for the Illuminati to judge Doctor Strange and others?

Alan Markfield/20th Century Fox

It’s not true, but it is possible. After all, dragging people before your secret cabal for judgement would mean it wasn’t so secret anymore. If the Illuminati think you’ve done something so wrong they need to do something about it, they’ll just pull strings in the background, like when they fired the Hulk into space.

Are we sure that it’s the Illuminati in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?

Nope — right now it’s just a sturdy theory. That said, it doesn’t seem likely that Marvel would make the first introduction of Professor X and Mister Fantastic to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in brief cameos in a Doctor Strange sequel.

With Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of MadnessAnd Loki sharing the same writer, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that the two stories appear to have a lot of parallels. Loki and Doctor Strange both travel through alternate universes that are based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They appear to be fighting against each other, with one part of their story involving them being taken into custody and brought before the cosmic court.

You could have any number of different ideas for the seven figures in those chairs. They could even be seven Doctor Strange variants — if Loki’s variants could be played by actors like Richard E. Grant, it stands to reason that Stephen Strange’s could be played by Patrick Stewart.

However, Illuminati fans still love to speculate about the possibilities of having a complete Illuminati cast. Actors from all kinds of superhero vaporware projects are trending as fans chew on rumors and dredge up old fan-castings, like John Krasinski (a fan favorite casting choice for a “good” Fantastic FourMovie, with once being considered to be Captain America), or Tom Cruise playing Variant Iron Man.

It is possible Marvel could have made this happen. Sure. But even if the studio did, it wouldn’t necessarily mean that these characters would be representative of Professor X or Mister Fantastic going forward.

For instance, there has been a lot of speculation that Aaron Taylor-Johnson might be reprising the role of Quicksilver. WandaVision, his character didn’t turn out to be from Fox’s X-Men continuity at all. He was an ordinary citizen of Westview, New Jersey who Agatha Harkness ensorcelled into believing he was a reborn version of Pietro created by Wanda’s magic.

Marvel Studios have shown that they’re perfectly comfortable playing around with the fanbase’s knowledge of the metatextual mess of the company’s film licenses — without actually making good on fan’s wildest crossover dreams.