Marvel Cinematic Universe · What If...?: Season One
What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands? — S01E04
TV · 2021 · 36 minutes · Phase Four · alternate
In this variant timeline, Christine Palmer dies in the car crash that in the main timeline crippled Stephen Strange's hands, and it is grief rather than injury that drives him to Kamar-Taj and the mystical arts. Wielding the Eye of Agamotto, Strange discovers her death is a fixed point that cannot be undone without unraveling his own path to power, and the Ancient One warns that forcing the change will destroy the universe. Strange refuses to accept the loss and keeps trying anyway, and the episode ends with a corrupted "Strange Supreme" alone in a shrinking bubble of collapsed reality after his obsession annihilates his entire universe.
Follows on from
- Doctor Strangetimeline-branch — Diverges from the main-timeline events of Doctor Strange, following a variant where Christine Palmer dies in the car accident that instead crippled Strange's hands in the primary timeline, sending his origin down a different path.
Leads to
- What If... the Watcher Broke His Oath? — S01E09crossover — Doctor Strange Supreme, the de facto leader of the Guardians of the Multiverse who casts the finale's protection spell and ultimately traps Ultron and Killmonger in a pocket universe, was introduced in this episode's tragic origin.