Marvel's Midnight Suns' narrative crossover with Doctor Strange 2 is just a coincidence

Both Marvel's Midnight Suns and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness revolving around the Darkhold spell book is a complete accident. 

The latest issue of PC Gamer features an extensive interview with Marvel's Midnight Suns creative lead Jake Solomon. The designer reveals he originally conceived the new strategy game featuring the Darkhold spell book years ago as something fresh and new, never imagining that one day Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange movie would also revolve around the occult item.

The PC Gamer interview reveals seeing the Darkhold spell book in Doctor Strange 2 was a "genuine surprise" for the dev. Solomon explains there was "no collaboration" between the new movie and Marvel's Midnight Suns, and both properties just happened to put the Darkhold spell book very much front and centre. 

However, there are other overlaps between the two. Both the "good" and "evil" versions of Scarlet Witch feature in both Doctor Strange and Midnight Suns, and it seems Solomon is particularly drawn to the character, repeatedly going back and forth on whether she's a hero or villain. We'll be seeing both versions of Scarlet Witch again soon in Midnight Suns.

Despite all this crossover, Solomon reaffirms that the Midnight Suns version of Doctor Strange is "fussier" than his Marvel Cinematic Universe counterpart. "In the Midnight Sons run of comics that this game is inspired by, Doctor Strange would always show up and have this amazing cape," Solomon says. "He'd be like 'I could stop her, but if I did, the force of my energies would rip the universe apart. Good luck!' And then he'd fly off, and you're like 'OK, Doctor Strange.'"

Check out our Marvel's Midnight Suns preview to see what we made of the Marvel venture from the XCOM devs.