here's what the illuminati could mean for the mcu ah the marvel cinematic universe and wildly unsubstantiated rumors is there a more iconic duo i think not while you may still be wrapping your head around which permutation of a pack of peter parker's might be appearing in spider-man no way home we're looking ahead to doctor strange in the multiverse of madness specifically a rumor that has been making the rounds that one of marvel's most shadowy and secretive super groups might be in it the illuminati no not a chicago deep dish pizza restaurant that's lou malnati's rather
we're talking about the coterie of marvel comics power brokers who are instrumental in everything from world war hulk to the events leading up to secret wars while everything we're discussing is unconfirmed and highly theoretical we're going to be discussing spoilers for series like loki one division and what if slow down a little bit there's a few people in the room that don't understand likewise if this winds up being true it could be considered a spoiler for doctor strange in the multiverse of madness so if you prefer to go into that movie unburdened with knowledge make
like long and find the nearest portal on out of here so before we get into the how and the why of this theory it's important to understand who the illuminati are in the marvel universe created by brian michael bendis and steve mcniven the illuminati first appeared in the pages of 2005's new avengers number 7. essentially they were a top secret organization of the world's most powerful and influential people in the marvel universe who would meet in private to shape the course of events in the superhuman world and make decisions on the best path forward the
original group consisted of doctor strange blackguard bultagon himself black bolt of the inhumans still the stupidest name in history charles xavier reed richards the reigning king of atlantis namor the submariner and your boy tony stark first coming together in the wake of the cree skrull war the group realized they all knew about the threat and could have stopped it from happening if they had acted together proactively but rather than offering a public-facing united front they decided to collaborate and share information in secret over the years they had their hands in everything from launching hulk into
space to trying to stop the skrull secret invasion to collecting all the infinity stones in an effort to will them out of existence in most cases their plans blew up in their faces pretty spectacularly however most importantly and perhaps most relevant to the mcu is that the illuminati were instrumental in planning for what to do about the impending end of the multiverse now i know what you're thinking the end of the multiverse didn't it just begin in earnest and loki yes yes it did in the mcu but in the comics during the lead up to
2015's secret wars incursion events began taking place where two different universes collided with each threatening to destroy the other the only way to save one universe from destruction was to obliterate the other using powerful anti-matter bombs a method that nearly tore the group apart one thing led to another and eventually only two realities remained and ultimately collided using an extra-dimensional life raft created by reed richards some of earth-616's inhabitants managed to survive only to find themselves reborn in battle world a strange patchwork reality consisting of previously destroyed universes dr doom ruled over it as an
all-powerful god king which set the stage for the events of the secret wars miniseries it's one of those massive super comic book events that takes years and years to set up and it honestly feels like that's where the mcu could ultimately be heading after all the multiversal mayhem they're building up in phase four it's also the only storyline the russo brothers have gone on record saying they would come back to marvel to direct so you better believe that the house of ideas is cooking up ways to make it happen however back to the matter at
hand the illuminati and doctor strange in the multiverse of madness did you forget that's what we were talking about why would marvel introduce them during the supernatural sam raimi sequel well the reasoning is simple the multiverse was effectively restarted in the finale of loki when silvi stabbed he who remains based on what we've seen so far spider-man no way home is going to lean into it further and show what happens when we try to meddle in the multiverse as multiple spider-man universes bleed together and the finale of wand division showed us that wanda's kids actually
are somewhere out there calling to the newly empowered scarlet witch across time and space we know that wanda maximov is going to play a major role in doctor strange in the multiverse of madness given her status as a nexus being in the comics which was hinted at in the show as well and just how powerful she really is something tells us she is going to find herself in the crosshairs of all manner of evil doers looking to exploit her and her chaos magic to bend the multiverse to their will so who would be capable of
stopping someone like wanda maximoff if she goes rogue and her powers fall into the wrong hands obviously doctor strange is going to be responsible for helping to bring her back to the side of the proverbial angels but this is where an organization like the illuminati could come in rather than the illuminati we know from the comics though this could be comprised of powerful people from across the multiverse who want to safeguard the fabric of reality from those who would seek to manipulate and damage it including the scarlet witch and those who might try to use
her powers for their own ends with rumors of everyone from captain carter and doctor strange supreme from what if making their live-action debut two characters like professor x and storm crossing over from the x-men universe to familiar faces like monica rambo making an appearance in this film it's anyone's guess as to who would actually be part of the newly minted mcu illuminati given that tony stark is deader than uncle ben you can probably rule him out but characters like namor are rumored to appear in black panther wakanda forever and we know that mr fantastic is
joining the mcu in the eventual fantastic four movie so anything can happen the beauty of this potential multiversal illuminati is that you can populate it with essentially whomever you want from across any timeline and have it make sense narratively with the introduction of america chavez we know our heroes will have the ability to travel through the multiverse through her star portals so maybe we'll see a special illuminati recruitment drive too or we'll meet whoever survives the impending invasion by an infinity stone-powered ultron on what if but with that said it would make sense in the
grander scheme of things given how the mcu has attempted time and time again to tell stories about unbridled power and its consequences both controlled and allowed to run wild and with earth's mightiest heroes effectively off the table doctor strange might need some help stopping whatever otherworldly threats that have designs on our world and others too anyway folks there you have it as with any unconfirmed rumor take it with a galactus sized grain of salt for the time being but given the prominence of the illuminati in marvel's larger storytelling and the role they could play in
the road to a secret wars event series or movie it feels within the realm of possibility after all the multiverse is an awfully big place and i'm told from reliable sources that it is in fact full of madness regardless we'll keep you up to date on all things mc and you over on nerdist.com in the meantime though tell us what do you think of this theory who would you want to see in the mcu's version of the illuminati let us know in the comments below and for the latest and greatest in the world of pop
culture stay tuned to nervus.com you
