And here’s our sorcerous surprise! Meet the Target-exclusive Defender Strange, who opens up some very interesting possibilities for Multiverse of Madness. The outfit is one of the character’s other comics looks, so it’s entirely possible that this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Doctor Strange in a new outfit. But if the What If? animated series taught us anything, it’s that the multiverse is chockablock with Doctors Strange. Given that the figure has slicked-black hair and a smaller goatee than the other Strange figures, I suspect this is going to be the case.
However, it’s very weird that the name of this figure is Defender Strange. In the comic, Doctor Strange was a founding member of the superhero team the Defenders, along with the Hulk and Namor the Sub-Mariner; the Silver Surfer joined very shortly thereafter. It would be very Marvel Studios to use Multiverse of Madness to secretly include the Hulk or introduce either of the other two characters, whether they’re part of this universe or another. Now, of course there’s already been the Netflix series titled The Defenders, which brought together Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist… but given that Charlie Cox is almost certainly reprising his role of Matt Murdock in No Way Home, could he be making an appearance in Multiverse of Madness? (Yes, he could.) To be determined!
