One of Doctor Strange’s defining moments in the MCU so far is his giving up the Time Stone to Thanos in “Avengers: Infinity War.” Having seen numerous potential futures, he knows that surrendering the stone and allowing Thanos to execute his plan to destroy half of all life in the universe would ultimately lead to his defeat. After five years, this turned out to be the case. In the time travel-heavy “Avengers: Endgame,” the titular team makes an Infinity Gauntlet of its own to stop Thanos and bring back those lost during the Snap.
While it saves the universe, Strange’s move comes with side effects. Countless lives are forever changed by half of the population’s disappearance and reappearance, with all levels of society adversely affected. Beyond that, Strange later accidentally unleashes five dangerous multiversal villains onto Earth-616 in the process of helping Spider-Man and his friends in “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” He then traverses the Multiverse to help America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Sometime after, he joins Clea (Charlize Theron) to investigate incursions — the sudden destruction of timelines across the Multiverse — that are seemingly caused by his timeline-hopping shenanigans.
Throughout all of these events, Strange has to make difficult decisions. He has put his friends and other universes in danger, seeking or defying the greater good. Surely, his many missteps are weighing on his conscience, and his reckoning with his mistakes will be a major part of his story going forward. Perhaps it’ll even culminate in him going on a journey of introspection and healing before taking “Avengers: Secret Wars” by storm, as Alex Perez has alleged will be the case.