Should I Watch WHAT IF Before Doctor Strange 2?

The WHAT IF series is a must-watch before Doctor Strange 2.

In “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands”, Strange’s motivation for learning the mystic arts is due to Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) dying in a car accident and trying to bring her back to life.

His obsession and refusal to accept her death as an absolute point drives him to absorb power from interdimensional beings, like the creature seen in the Doctor Strange 2 trailer and throughout the What If…? series.

Where Doctor Strange lacked the emotional pull between Stephen and Christine, this episode highlights how much of an impact they have on each other, even when they aren’t together.

In one of the Doctor Strange 2 trailers, it’s suggested that Strange attends Christine’s wedding to another man. At the end of this particular episode Strange watches Christine disappear in his arms after he tore apart his reality as Strange Supreme, leaving him alone with his own grief.

In this reality he is one of the most powerful beings, powerful enough to see and hear The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright), and is one of the variant versions that will face our Doctor Strange in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” directly precedes the story of “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and features Strange in a prominent role.

The film features the multiverse in a big way and even pulls in characters from previous Spider-Man movies that have never appeared in the MCU before.