Now in theaters, Doctor Strange is full of easter eggs, cameos and references to the Sorcerer Supreme's extensive comic history. Spells, artifacts mystical locations and easter eggs to upcoming films could have gone over your head with all of the new magical action. One of the bigger callbacks was straight out of Bryan K Vaughn’s 2006 comic, The Oath, and one of the reasons Scott Derrickson got the directing job: the astral plane fight scene, where we see Strange watching over his own surgery as Palmer tries to save him from a mortal stab wound while Strange’s soul goes at it with another spirit in the ethereal dimension. That’s a fairly big one, but there’s more name drops and references than we can count. So here’s a breakdown of every easter egg that stood out, including clues that could tease future movies like Thor:Ragnarok, Captain Marvel, and Avengers: Infinity War and the Doctor Strange sequel.
The Phone Call
Before Stephen Strange gets into the car accident, he takes a call about potential new patients. The colleague over the phone names three options. The first, is a Marine Colonel who has a spinal injury from using ‘experimental armor.’ On first thought, this sounds like War Machine, who we last saw spiral from thousands of feet into and open field in Civil War. However, the timeline doesn’t match up. The early parts of the movie have to take place too far in the past for it to be Colonel James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes (played by Don Cheadle). This makes the case for Justin Hammer, Tony Stark's’ rival who tried to create his own Iron Man armor. In Iron Man 2 , there’s a shot of someone getting seriously hurt while using the gear.
The second call sparked more interest from Strange. She’s a woman in her 20s who was struck by lightning. The injury is made worse because of an electronic implant already in her brain that treats schizophrenia. Fans speculate this could be Captain Marvel, considering her origin will be changed quite a bit for the MCU. However, there’s a difference between changing things up and completely altering her comic origin, the latter of which is hard to believe will happen for a character who is expected to become a centerpiece for the next phase of the MCU. There’s also an argument for this female character actually being the villain somewhere else in the MCU. (Read more about The Defenders theory here.)
Mystical Artifacts
Sling Rings - open portals to different locations on Earth, and into different planes and dimensions, such as the mirror dimension.
Cloak of Levitation- the film version seems to act more consciously than in the comics. It blocks both magical and non-magical attacks, but we don’t see it blend into regular clothing like it does in the comics. Here, it looks like a cloak all the time.
Eye of Agamotto - holds the time stone, the Infinity Stone in Strange’s possession. It’s capable of fracturing and altering time. Only one stone remains to be found in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before Avengers:Infinity War , the soul stone.
Flaming Whip - one of Strange's magical offenses is a spell for a flaming whip.
Mandalas of Light - There’s many variations of Strange’s mystical shield in the comics, such as the Vishanti Shield of Personal Defense, The Unscathable Shield of the Seraphim and The Seraphimic Shield.
Wand of Watoomb - is in Wong’s possession and enhances mystical energies of the wielder.
Vaulting Boots of Valtorr- seen on Mordo’s feet, these magical boots allow the wearer to temporality walk on air and leap far beyond human abilities. Valtorr is a mystical energy used by Strange to to call on the Vapors of Valtorr, a fog, gas or smoke used as a defense mechanism.
Daggers of Daveroth- these are physical blades in the MCU, enchanted ones like in the comics.
Dark Scepter - Spotted in the London sanctorum, it’s a mystic item stolen by the Witch in the comics. Kaecilius, Wong, Daniel Drumm and Tina Minoru go find the Witch to get it back.
Staff of the Living Tribunal - in Mordo’s possession, the magical staff can be used in a variety of ways. It exerts greater force than the wielder himself, and can be manipulated into different segments and forms.
Black Knight’s helmet - Sir Percy of Scandia, known as the Black Knight, was stabbed and killed by an enchanted sword in the comics, but was eventually released from the mortal plane by Doctor Strange. We see his helmet in the sanctorum, but his Black Knight's Ebony Blade was left out.
Books - there were countless magical books in the film. The Book of Cagliostro was used by both Strange and Kaecilius. Others shown in the film include The Book of the Invisible Sun, the Codex Imperium, Key of Solomon, astronomia Nova, and the Vedic Sanskrit.
Characters
Tina Minoru , one of the Masters of Kamar-Taj, is seen with the Staff of One. Her daughter, Nico, will appear in the Hulu series, The Runaways.
Christine Palmer is the third Night Nurse in the comics. Here we see her as Doctor Strange’s closest friends at work. The Night Nurse title is currently taken by Claire Temple, who has appeared in every Marvel-Netflix series to date.
Daniel Drumm is the protector of the New York Sanctum until he’s killed off. To comic fans, however, this death is exciting. It means we should expect Daniel's brother, Jericho, to get acquainted with the mystic arts and become the supernatural superhero Brother Voodoo.
Master Hamir- The man Strange mistakes for The Ancient One is actually Hamir the Hermit, also father of Wong but it’s unclear if that’s also the case in the film.
Stan Lee is spotted riding on a bus reading The Doors of Perception, a philosophical book documenting the author’s (Aldous Huxleys) experiences taking mescaline. This may be a nod to Steve Ditko, who created the psychedelic look of the 1960 Strange Tales series that was inspiration for the film, the imagery featured in the Dark Dimension in particular.
Locations
Metro General Hospital- In addition to the workplaces of Doctor Strange and Christine Palmer, Claire Temple used to work there as well, until she quit after the events of Daredevil Season 2 and moved to Harlem to help Luke Cage.
Avengers Tower- seen multiple times, this places the opening of Doctor Strange before the events of the first Avengers movie. After Age of Ultron, the Avengers moved to a new facility. However, the mid-credits scene takes place during next year’s Thor:Ragnarok.
Kamar-Taj - the training ground for the Masters of the Mystic Arts in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Sanctums - we saw three in the film. One in London, Hong Kong, and of course, New York with the iconic Seal of Vishani design on the window.
Roxxon - the Roxxon Corp building is a throwback to Iron Man , the movie that started it all. Roxxon was first seen on screen back in 2008 and featured in the sequels. It’s also briefly in Captain America: Civil War and Daredevil , and has been heavily alluded to in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter.
Thor: Ragnarok
In the mid credits scene, Dr. Stephen Strange takes a meeting with Thor at his Sanctum Sanctorum, where Thor reveals he and his brother, Loki, are looking for their father, Odin, who has been missing since Thor: The Dark World when Loki impersonated his father so he could take the Asgardian throne for himself. Strange offers Thor tea, which he then transforms into a automatically refilling glass of beer.Strange says Loki is on his watchlist of those who pose a threat to the world, but offers his assistance if Thor agrees to his family’s return to Asgard. This would seem to suggest we’ll see Doctor Strange in a year, when the new Thor movie releases.
Doctor Strange Sequel
In the post-credits scene, Mordo tracks down Pangborn, a former student of The Ancient One who used magic to heal his own spine. Mordo takes his power and says there’s too many sorcerers in the world. From what it looks like, Mordo’s new agenda is to change that by eliminating other sorcerers. If so, he’s sure to be Strange’s adversary down the line.
As for the larger implications for Doctor Strange in the MCU, he’s definitely going to be in Avengers: Infinity War , and from the looks of the post-credits scene, quite possibly Thor:Ragnarok in a year. There's only the soul stone left to find and there’s going to be no stones found in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 or Spider-Man:Homecoming (probably not). If that telephone call Strange got before he crashed actually refers to Captain Marvel, it will be interesting to see how the two characters’ arcs cross in the future.
Did we miss any big easter eggs? Let us know in the comments below!
