Merchandising and hit big-screen properties go hand in hand, like turkey and stuffing on a Thanksgiving table. And in order to properly create the merch that will bring in the bucks, studios give the manufacturers details about the plot of the film or show that they prefer to keep secret. However, upon the reveal of that merchandise, those secrets inevitably leak. We’ve seen it time and time again, from some big players in the toy industry.
And it seems that it has happened again. The product: a 1,000-piece puzzle. The company: Booktopia. The spoiler: I’ll pause a moment for those who don’t want the spoiler…
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Still here? Well, the spoiler this time concerns Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. The image posted on Booktopia, which has since been removed, shows the good doctor facing off against a one-eyed, Cthulhu-like creature named Shuma-Gorath.
The leak was found by an eagle-eyed fan named Millennia and posted on Resetera. And as the image is no longer available on the Booktopia site (as I pointed out earlier), it’s safe to assume that the spoiler is true. Whether Shuma-Gorath is a driving force behind the plot is still a mystery, but it’s a sure bet that we’ll be seeing him pop up in the movie.
So, who, or what, the heck is Shuma-Gorath? The name first appeared in a short story by Robert E. Howard in which he expands on the Cthulhu mythos, but it’s actually Marvel Comics who fleshed out the character. According to the official Marvel biography, he is ”one of the “Old Ones” who came to Earth untold millions of years ago, ruling it and feasting on mankind’s ancestors.” Doctor Strange has faced off against Shuma-Gorath numerous times in the comics, so seeing the creature appear in the Doctor Strange sequel is apropos.
How does Shuma-Gorath get mixed up with Doctor Strange in the upcoming film? So far, that secret has been kept under wraps, but it’s probably due to the multiversal shenanigans Strange finds himself in. Whether those shenanigans are tied to his actions in the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home, are fall out from the finale of Loki on Disney+, or have to do with Scarlet Witch’s deep-dive into the Darkhold at the end of WandaVision, also on Disney+, remain to be seen.
Despite how it happens, it should be a good battle.
See Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange in Spider-Man: No Way Home on December 17, 2021, before he appears in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness on May 6, 2022.
