Despite the fact that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness focused on Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, rather than Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange story, moviegoers can’t get enough of the cameos. A cameo or two in Doctor Strange 2 were expected, but who appeared and what their presence in the MCU could mean has sparked a flurry of new theories and speculation.
Fans were taken aback by both the characters who appeared and those who did not. However, even though there were rumours and obvious connections, no one from Loki on Disney+, such as Kang the Conqueror, appeared; and even though Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, who appeared in the first trailer, made his MCU debut, no other X-Men appeared either.
That may not have always been the plan for this Multiversal film, according to recent rumours.
Michael Fassbender filmed a scene for Doctor Strange 2
It was recently revealed by host James Clement on the Weekly Planet podcast that “Michael Fassbender was going to turn up as Magneto” in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was “filmed but ultimately cut…”
First Class, Days of Future Past, Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix were all Fassbender’s X-Men appearances as Magneto. Because of their divergent worldviews, Magneto and Professor X’s relationship in comics and on-screen is often antagonistic. Patrick Stewart, who played Doctor Strange 2’s Magneto opposite Ian McKellen, did appear in Michael Fassbender’s Days of Future Past, even though McKellen played Magneto in that film.
One can see a similarity between Stewart’s advice to his younger self in Days of Future Past and his line in Doctor Strange 2, where he says: “Just because someone stumbles and loses their way doesn’t mean they’re lost forever”
Clement claims the following:
“So somebody sent me a list of five characters that were going to be in this that were cut… Michael Fassbender was going to turn up as Magneto. I said [to my source], ‘Were any of these filmed?’ And this person said, ‘Filmed but ultimately cut from the theatrical version,’ which is what my source relates…”
The X-Men Link to Wanda Maximoff
True or false? If this information is true, it means Marvel Studios had plans to use more of Fox’s X-Men in this MCU film as well as actual footage of the scenes that were filmed and exist.
Perhaps Marvel is closer to rebooting the live-action X-Men than fans first thought, given Evan Peters’ WandaVision cameo, Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier, and now Magneto?
This raises the question of how the film would have used Fassbender’s Magneto and whether he would have been a member of the Illuminati. In the comics, Magneto was Wanda Maximoff’s father, and that’s even more interesting.
While WandaVision revealed that Magneto was not the father of the MCU’s Wanda, it is worth noting that Multiverse of Madness featured more than one Wanda; and if this scene was filmed, it seems Marvel would have addressed this comic book connection in some way. If this rumour proves to be true, it will be interesting to see what Marvel has to say about Fassbender’s cameo in the coming weeks and months.
