The Presence of a Grand Storytelling; Through MCU and ‘Doctor Strange’

Perhaps one movie is not enough to tell the whole plot, and one album isn't enough to finish the story. Such thoughts have brought today the continuous, ever-expanding 'multiverse of madness'. As of today, media that present themselves through a grand scale of storytelling, otherwise known as a 'universe' of their own can be seen throughout the sea of contents. Such 'universes' take the form of not just series or prequels, but a web of much wider, vastly connected media varying in its form, or even the creator of the content. As such 'universes' become more and more standard, the storytelling present within the content is expected to expand and develop as well.
One of the most prominent universes of them all would be the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which set the cornerstone for the industry to be creating these universes. MCU presents various events in the same timeline, all sharing the same time and space. How each event affects the universe is well portrayed throughout the films with carefully planned coherence, providing the audience with a prolonged experience. Each movie is part of the intricate plot that pierces through the whole of the cinematic universe, and such scale is what attracts such a large number of fans to the theater. Marvel's characteristic cookie videos or original humor present throughout the movie would be the elements that Marvel fans can find in any movie, shared despite the changing creators and directors. Now, Marvel has built up the biggest cinematic universe and has its pursuers that follow. The appearance of new universes greatly affected by MCU, such as SMCU of SM-a Korean production label, would be those that are modeled after MCU's global success. The attempts to create a big field for the plot would affect the future pursuance of content, especially regarding how the expanding plot may affect the overall completion and comprehension of the plot is the key point here.
MCU's most recent one of the most recent works to set foot further into the new multiverse would be Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This sequel of Doctor Strange reveals the direction MCU is taking in order to continue their vast plot, and how such directions would affect Marvel's further pursuance in their movies. The 'Multiverse of Madness' brings up the new keyword Marvel would be bringing up for their next generation of films, the Multiverse. Within the vast multiverse, the journey of Doctor Strange is portrayed through absorbing visuals with a sense of horror. The story now takes on a connection with the Fantastic 4 series and the Xmen universe, which raises more curiosity as well as anticipation. The new possibilities that the concept of multiverse opened for MCU-from a character returning from another universe, interaction with other films, or transition of a character's trait-raises further interest. Due to expanding MCU, such experimental choices were able to take place, with the theme of multiverse present both within the film and in the MCU itself.
On the other hand, the new Doctor Strange also received confusion from the audience due to the fact that it was linked to various other works of Marvel that were crucial for understanding. Namely, Marvel's Disney plus the original drama of Wanda Vision was a must-watch in order for the audience to understand the character, Wanda. Wanda's change in personality or reasons for her extreme actions is explained through such previous works. However, considering that such content was limited to a certain platform and that without context, the character's actions weren't reconcilable with the rest of the movie leaves unsettlement. Not only the Wanda Vision, but there are plenty of other movies that contain the required context, such as Loki, Infinity War, and Spiderman: No way home. Perhaps such a list of movies was already familiar to the audience, if only they were long fans of Marvel who have kept a close watch on their filmography. In other words, the presence of a largely connected universe is appealing not to the general audience, but to the fandom who already have the required context. In fact, Multiverse of Madness's tickets weren't as successful in the 2-3 weeks after the ticket opened, due to the limit in the storyline. Apparently, the box office was also affected by such factors.
The presence of a cinematic universe is changing the overall tendencies of how producers approach each film, and how the fans/audience must view them. Cinematic universes enable grand storytelling that provides further context outside of the 2-3 hour limit. Such open greater possibilities or freedom for the producers, but with that comes a limit in the range of audiences or popularity. Furthermore, how the plots would complete in the end with all the branches of stories is another question that these new universes carry.