A Morbius theory offers a new interpretation as to what really caused the incursion mentioned in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
After Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, an incursion has been confirmed to be underway in the MCU, which could help to explain one major point of confusion in Morbius. Even though Marvel Studios is now deep within the Multiverse Saga, not many projects have actually focused on the concept of the multiverse. Only Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania have explored the forces of the multiverse, though this is set to change in the coming years, especially after Doctor Strange’s potentially catastrophic actions during MCU Phase 4.
One of the biggest threats that the multiverse poses to the MCU is that of incursions, first mentioned during Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness after Strange comes face-to-face with Earth-838’s Illuminati team. Reed Richards, portrayed by John Krasinski, explains that incursions are the consequence of prolonged multiversal travel, causing realities to collide, and leading to the destruction of one or more universes. This apparently teases the upcoming events of Phase 6’s Avengers: Secret Wars, setting up some huge changes in the MCU, and it seems the effects of an incursion might have already started to present themselves.
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Doctor Strange Caused An Incursion In The MCU’s Phase 4
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness saw Strange and MCU newcomer America Chavez journey across a variety of alternate realities, landing in one that would be almost reminiscent of Earth-616, were it not for the greenery growing on skyscrapers, citizens dressed in drab clothes, and red traffic lights meaning “go“. Unfortunately for the people of the MCU, Mister Fantastic hinted that Strange’s visit to Earth-838 would cause a devastating incursion between their two realities. Multiverse of Madness’ post-credits scene supported this conclusion.
This moment saw Charlize Theron debut as Clea, bringing a warning to Doctor Strange that he had caused an incursion that needed to be fixed, with the pair disappearing into the Dark Dimension together. It was assumed that this incursion was between Earth-616, the main MCU continuity, and Earth-838, the home of the Illuminati, but this wasn’t confirmed by Clea. This means that any number of Marvel-related universes could be colliding with the MCU, potentially linking back to Doctor Strange’s actions in one prior MCU project.
MCU’s Incursions Could Have Started In Spider-Man: No Way Home
Before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness explained more about the multiverse and incursions, Spider-Man: No Way Home acted as the MCU’s first multiversal spectacle. After Peter Parker caused Strange to botch a spell, several villains from Spider-Man film history were brought into the MCU proper, including the Green Goblin, Dr. Otto Octavius, Sandman, Lizard, and Electro, as well as the two previous live-action incarnations of Spider-Man himself. While seeing Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland all suit up as Spider-Man was a fantastic moment in cinema history, it may have started something very dark for the MCU.
Reed Richards was worried about Doctor Strange residing on Earth-838 for a matter of hours, but the Spider-Man variants and their respective villains were battling on Earth-616 for much longer than that. This event surely caused some sort of destabilization in the multiverse, potentially even kick-starting an incursion that nobody had the knowledge to understand. If this was in fact the incursion that Clea referred to in Multiverse of Madness’ post-credits scene, this could help explain one confusing Marvel storyline that followed the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Doctor Strange Incursion Could Explain Vulture Being In Morbius’ Universe
Sony released Morbius in April 2022, and the divisive film’s post-credits scenes led on directly from the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, as the MCU’s version of Adrian Toomes, a.k.a. the Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming, found himself transported to Morbius’ universe after Doctor Strange’s spell. While Morbius was met with a widely negative response, it’s post-credits scenes sealed the deal for not really making much sense, as the Vulture shouldn’t have been transported to another universe, but rather stayed in the main MCU continuity as that’s where the spell was performed. Despite this, Morbius’ major plot hole can still be explained.
Perhaps the incursion that Doctor Strange caused during MCU Phase 4 brought the paths of Earth-616 and Sony’s Spider-Verse, where Morbius is set, onto a collision course. This would help to explain how the Vulture found himself in Sony’s Spider-Verse, teasing the setup of a villainous team, potentially the Sinister Six, against an as-yet unknown version of Spider-Man. Should Sony and Marvel’s franchises be set for collision due to an incursion, this would be the perfect way to bring back Maguire and Garfield in Avengers: Secret Wars, and finally pay off Clea’s tease from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
