The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Star You Might Have Missed In Doctor Strange 2
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is so action-packed that it's something of a miracle the film is able to deliver brand-new characters and an emotionally resonant narrative without buckling under the weight of its own ambitions. For one thing, it's got a big core cast of characters to balance, from Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) himself to Wong (Benedict Wong) and Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). It also introduces newcomer America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), a young woman with the power to punch star-shaped holes between dimensions. There's a lot you might miss on the first watch, including some of the many cameo appearances.
A large portion of the movie is set in the alternate reality of Earth-838, a universe that has seen the dangers of the Multiverse firsthand when its version of Doctor Strange caused an incursion that annihilated another reality. This led to the creation of an institute to study and monitor the Multiverse, along with the formation of the Illuminati, a group of heroes a lot like the Avengers but somehow even smugger. The Illuminati are new characters to Doctor Strange but familiar faces for fans.
However, for fans of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," the new series from the classic science fiction franchise that's now streaming on Paramount+, one of those cameos is even more significant than you might have thought.
Anson Mount plays Black Bolt in Doctor Strange 2
When Doctor Strange and America Chavez arrive in the alternate reality known as Earth-838 (as opposed to the standard MCU universe, Earth-616), they are shortly imprisoned and Strange is brought before the Illuminati, a high council of superheroes who formed a coalition to protect their reality from the direst of threats. It is at this point that "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" goes nuts with its cameos.
Among the Illuminati are "The Office" alumnus John Krasinski as Reed Richards and the venerable Patrick Stewart as a version of Professor Charles Xavier. But one more member of that team is notable, especially to fans of the latest "Star Trek" show: Anson Mount, who plays Captain Christopher Pike on "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," appears in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" as Black Bolt.
It's easy to miss the man under the mask, especially since that mask obscures a large portion of the actor's face. It also doesn't help that, since his character's power is the ability to generate powerful sonic waves with his voice, Mount has almost no lines of dialogue before being brutally bested and bumped off by Wanda Maximoff in a scene that wouldn't feel out of place in director Sam Raimi's camp horror films. But this isn't Mount's first Marvel rodeo.
Mount has starred as Black Bolt in another Marvel project you forgot about
If you didn't identify Anson Mount as Black Bolt in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," you may also have forgotten that the actor first took on the role of the sonic-powered superhero in "Marvel's Inhumans," a show that was, in many ways, Marvel's attempt at creating an X-Men-style group of characters before Disney bought out Fox and acquired the film rights for Wolverine and friends. Perhaps that's why Inhumans were killing off X-Men in the comics back in 2015.
While "Inhumans" was released during Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it has never been mandatory viewing for fans of the franchise since it's technically not part of it. Additionally, the show was, by all accounts, a massive flop of the kind rarely seen from Marvel. It has an embarrassingly low score on Rotten Tomatoes, but given that its showrunner also oversaw the "Iron Fist" series on Netflix, perhaps that's unsurprising. The show was canceled after a single season, and until the appearance of Black Bolt in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," it seemed as though Marvel wanted fans to forget about the Inhumans entirely.
However, despite being played by Anson Mount in both projects, the Black Bolt in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" and the Black Bolt in "Inhumans" are not the same person. The former exists in the alternate dimension of Earth-838, while the latter resides in the original MCU reality of Earth-616.