What Is America Chavez's Home Universe In Doctor Strange 2?
Contains spoilers for "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness"
Six years beyond his first Marvel Cinematic Universe outing, Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Stephen Strange is once again in a spotlight all his own. "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" made its theatrical debut on May 6, 2022, sending fans into a frenzy in short order. Not only did it include a host of thrilling cameos and a new, pretty villainous side of Wanda "Scarlet Witch" Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), but it also included the franchise arrival of a relatively recent Marvel Comics creation: America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez).
Introduced in the opening moments of the film, Chavez quickly becomes an integral piece of the overall story. Imbued with the ability to open star-shaped portals that transport her across the multiverse, Wanda seeks out this power in hopes of stealing it so she can reunite with her children, Billy (Julian Hilliard) and Tommy (Jett Klyne). During Strange, and Wong's (Benedict Wong) attempts to keep the Scarlet Witch at bay, we get the chance to learn about Chavez and her particularly tragic backstory.
In covering who America Chavez is, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" gave audiences a quick look at her homeworld. Here's what we know about this other-worldly location and its roots on the pages of Marvel Comics.
Chavez seems to call the Utopian Parallel home
Upon falling through several different universes together, Doctor Strange and America Chavez land in what's later referred to as Earth 838. As they wander the unfamiliar streets together and encounter a very bent out of shape street vendor known as the Pizza Poppa (as played by a frequent collaborator of director Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell), they find a service that allows them to rewatch their most important memories. When Chavez uses it, she relives the day she lost her mothers (Ruth Livier and Chess Lopez) after losing control of her portal-creating powers, thus sending them somewhere into the multiverse.
Though it's never explicitly stated in the film, the location where this all goes down appears to be the Utopian Parallel. Introduced as a creation of the Demiurge in "Young Avengers" Vol. 2 #14, this locale exists outside of time and space. However, this explanation was eventually retconned, and the truth came out that the Parallel is nothing more than a private island where doctors run nefarious medical experiments on unwilling subjects. Chavez's sister, Catalina, revealed this to her and theorized in "America Chavez: Made in the USA" Vol. 1 #3 that she made up her sci-fi idea of the Utopian Parallel as a means of coping.
One could imagine that America Chavez has a bright future ahead of her in the years to come as she continues to search for her parents. Therefore, it stands to reason that we haven't seen the last of the Utopian Parallel on the big screen just yet.