How To Draw Doctor Strange

| November 2, 2021 |

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Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange — *Photo: Marvel Studios*

Given its premise, pretty much anything could happen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel that sees Strange messing with the Time Stone in a post- Loki MCU. Maybe that's why any concrete details about the Sam Raimi film are both so precious and also so precarious. In Strange's Multiverse, reality—and therefore canon—is a bit more malleable. That being said, merch is forever, so you better believe we're side-eying what appears to be some official Marvel tie-in toy teasing a Doctor Strange antagonist who has recently popped up elsewhere in the MCU…

Australian retailer Booktopia has a 1000-piece adult coloring pad and puzzle currently listed for pre-order that showcases the Sorcerer Supreme facing off against a wide-eyed, tentacled creature that certainly looks like Shuma-Gorath, the Cthulhu-like demon from Marvel Comics. Leading particular credibility to this leak is the fact that Shuma-Gorath showed up not once, but multiple times in the first season of Marvel's What If…?

Shuma-Gorath first popped up in the What If…? series premiere, when Captain Carter had to force the massive monster back through a portal in an alternate, WWII-era of our universe. Shuma-Gorath gets a bit more to do in Episode 4 of the season, which sees a selfish, grief-stricken version of Stephen Strange seeking massive amounts of power in an attempt to reverse Christine's death. The process involves Stephen traveling to the Library of Cagliostro, where he summons various supernatural creatures in order to absorb their power(s). The first is Shuma-Gorath, and he doesn't manage to defeat the mythical-like creature on his first try. However, if at first you don't succeed… Stephen proceeds to summon and absorb the dark power from countless other creatures before returning to Shuma-Gorath a much-changed (for wont of a better noun) man.

In the end, the Shuma-Gorath is no match for the Dark Sorcerer, which begs the question: Why bring Shuma-Gorath back for Doctor Strange 2 ? We've already seen a version of Strange defeat the creature in What If…? Well, there's the draw of seeing the Shuma-Gorath realized in live-action, of course. But there's also the possibility that the puzzle-fied Shuma-Gorath is not what it seems. Could Doctor Strange bring back the version of Strange we see in What If…? We see him utilize his Shuma-Gorath powers in the What If…? season finale, which means some incarnation of the creature features in three of What If 's nine episodes. That's a lot of screen time for a character you're never going to see again. Could What If 's darker version of Strange, the one that harnessed Shuma-Gorath for his own purposes, be the true antagonist of Multiverse of Madness ?

Do you think Shuma-Gorath will be the Doctor Strange 2 villain? Let us know in the comments below…