Doctor Strange 2 post-credits scene: what is an incursion?

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen, has a major post credits scene that teases some big things for the future of the MCU. In it, Clea arrives and tells Stephen Strange that he has caused an incursion. That's a major concept in the Marvel Universe, and it's all leading toward Secret Wars.

The scene raises three questions: what an incursion actually is, who the mystery character Clea is, and what I thought at the time could be happening down the line.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has two endings, and the post credits Strange looks like the MCU's own

There are two endings to the film. In the first, Strange walks down the street before he collapses and an eye shoots open in the middle of his forehead. That would be a big cliffhanger to end things on. The post credits scene, however, follows him walking down the street once more, and everything seems fine.

It's possible that this is a variant Strange, but the world around him looks exactly like New York, so I do believe it's the main one from the MCU. At this point he's approached by Clea, played by Charlize Theron, which I joked confirms a Fast and the Furious crossover. Well, Wanda did only care about family, unless you're Reed Richards' kids. Clea tells Strange that he has caused an incursion and that they're going to fix it.

The final post credits scene is a different moment altogether. Pizza Poppa's hand finally stops attacking him, which is of course a nod to the Evil Dead.

How incursions work in Multiverse of Madness: dream walking and the Darkhold

We hear the word incursion at several points throughout the movie, and we learn of two Doctor Stranges who both caused one, along with the repercussions. The first was Supreme Strange, founder of the Illuminati, who had been using the Darkhold to dream walk into other worlds. The film reveals that dreams are versions of ourselves living out their lives in the multiverse. Dream walking therefore lets you astral project into these other realities, where you can take control.

Through Wanda, we see that this lets someone puppet a variant of themselves in another universe. Stay too long, though, and it has disastrous effects. If someone stays in an alternate reality too long, the universe they're from bleeds together with the one they're now in. If they stay too long and leave too big of a mark, this can be irreversible.

That's how America is able to travel from universe to universe and stay in the 616 at the end: she's the only version of herself that exists across the entire multiverse. It's also why Doctor Strange and Christine can't be together at the end, because they're from different realities. Supreme Strange caused an incursion, and the Illuminati killed him to stop the bleed. That saved their universe. But we also meet another Strange who wasn't killed, and the incursion he caused destroyed an entire reality along with most of his own.

Incursions in the comics: Time Runs Out pushed worlds into each other

Incursions are a big deal, and in the comics several of them happened in the storyline Time Runs Out. Several worlds hurtled toward each other on a path of destruction. The heroes had to fight their opposites on the world that was at risk of destroying theirs.

If they won, they were safe. If they lost, their entire reality was wiped out and those characters ceased to exist. It was a major event, and it led to almost every Earth going head to head. With these worlds constantly crashing into each other, it eventually led to the collapse of the entire multiverse, which went into Secret Wars. He Who Remains brought this up to some degree in Loki.

Secret Wars from 2015: Battleworld, Doom and Miles Morales

Secret Wars from 2015 is not to be confused with the 1984 Secret Wars, in which Spider-Man got his black suit, though some of the characters do carry over from that earlier event. In the 2015 story, the world was turned into a reality known as Battleworld, with the continents each being their own regions filled with characters from their own realities. One of those locations is Spider Island.

Doom oversaw this reality, and he was viewed as a god whom everyone worshipped. There were still several wars on this planet, some major deaths, and it was hell on Earth. In the end everything was destroyed, and this created a new timeline, or rather a new Earth, in which several characters from the expanded universes were brought into the main one.

Miles Morales, for example, had been a character made purely for the Ultimate comics, but this event allowed him to cross over onto the prime Earth so he could interact with the characters from it. If you go and read Secret Wars, get the expanded stories beyond just the graphic novel, otherwise you'll have no idea what's going on. I read the book two times without checking out the offshoots and it made no sense.

Why the post credits scene matters: Strange runs toward the danger

Strange was told multiple times not to use the Darkhold to dream walk, but he didn't care. So the 616 Strange causing an incursion is pretty big. What makes this post credits scene important, though, is that we see him running toward the danger instead of away from it. With Clea at his side, he stands a chance.

That raises the obvious question of who she is and what she wants.

Who is Clea? Dormammu's niece and Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimension

Clea is the daughter of Prince Orini and Umar, who happens to be the sister of Dormammu. Together they lived in the Dark Dimension, and they worshipped the villain, seeing him as a god. Clea even ended up becoming the Sorcerer Supreme of that reality, and the reality tear she opens leads directly there.

Strange of course defeated Dormammu at the end of his first solo film, and it's likely that those in the Dark Dimension would know who he was. It's possible he even caused an incursion all the way back then, because he spent a vast amount of time in that dimension due to the Time Stone. That's a lot of timey wimey stuff that I'm not 100% sure on, but it would explain why they go there. It's also important to bear in mind that Dormammu is still alive, so we could potentially meet him again in this reality.

Is Dormammu a Strange variant? Why I doubt the MCU goes there

There are theories that Dormammu is a Strange variant. He was originally supposed to be voiced by a different actor, but that was changed so that Benedict Cumberbatch did the performance. At the time, this was said to be because Dormammu took on his attributes, since Strange was the only life form around. They could go that route if they really want to.

If they do, I doubt they're going to make Clea Dormammu's niece, because Strange and Clea end up married. Also, Dormammu is pretty much Andross, whereas Clea looks like a normal person, so I doubt they'll go that route.

Clea and Doctor Strange can be together without causing an incursion

Unlike Christine, the pair can date without causing an incursion, because Clea can travel between realities without dream walking. They could end up dating down the line, and that would help him get over Christine, who is now married to someone else.

In the comics, the Ancient One became aware of Dormammu's plans to take over Earth and sent Strange to investigate. Clea spotted him and followed him, taking a shine to him. She tried to get Strange to avoid fighting, and when he refused, Dormammu imprisoned her. Eventually she was freed, and they ended up working together.

I can see the films doing something like this, and when Strange entered the Dark Dimension in his first film, she may have seen him. We know from the conversation at the end that Clea wants Strange to help fix an incursion. I love the way this Strange has learned from the mistakes of the other two, and that he's heading toward the problem instead of letting himself die or letting a universe be destroyed.

The third eye: has Strange mastered the corruption or is he toying with it?

The third eye opening up could show he has mastered his corruption, or it may hint that he's toying with it too much. The Illuminati did say that their Strange refused to stop dream walking, which caused a lot of issues. The third eye has also appeared in the comics, where it showed up when Strange was corrupted.

Because all the Darkholds were destroyed, there's potential that Strange managed to get it under control. That might be why it doesn't seem to be affecting him in the post credits scene.

Held back cameos and a possible multiverse team up led by Clea

There were rumors that many cameos and moments were originally planned for this film but held back. My guess at the time was that they didn't want to use everything in the first film and saved some cameos for later multiverse movies. That phase of the MCU seemed to be all about bringing in variants.

Beyond Clea, I thought we might get something of a multiverse team up movie like we had in What If. In the same way that The Watcher and Strange Supreme recruited heroes from across different timelines, Clea might do the same. She could be a Nick Fury style figure who unites them all, which would mean different versions of characters like the ones we've had in the shows and Phase 4. They could even bring in Loki, who we last left looking over a statue of Kang.

Going forward, I thought we'd see some universes destroyed, preferably the Morbius one. Sony are clearly ignoring the rules of incursions, since Michael Keaton's Vulture is allowed to run around scot free. Everything needs to be brought back together into a sacred timeline. Then it'll all start over again, and we can follow the MCU for another 20 years.