One of the fun games that fans get to play whenever a new Marvel movie comes out is figuring out how all the new characters will fit into the existing Marvel universe. This includes Rachel McAdams character of Christine Palmer in Doctor Strange. One of the persistent rumors about the character is that she might become the concierge doctor to the superhero set known as the Night Nurse, however, Marvel's President just killed that rumor pretty dead.
"I will say that that story line does not play into the movie."
Kevin Feige's comments to Entertainment Weekly certainly discount the rumor in the short term, but they're specific enough that it doesn't completely kill the idea for the future. Feige actually says that it's as much fun for Marvel to speculate internally about where characters may go as it for the fans, which sounds like while there may not be specific plans to turn Christine Palmer into the Night Nurse, the studio isn't discounting the possibility entirely. While Marvel is often believed to have the future of the MCU planned out in excruciating detail, it sounds like that may not be the case here. The future of at least this character doesn't sound like it's been entirely decided.
The rumor that Rachel McAdams might end up playing the Night Nurse character actually started when Daredevil premiered on Netflix. Fans noticed that Rosario Dawson's character was fulfilling the role of the Night Nurse, though her character's name was not that of Linda Carter, the most famous Night Nurse, but Claire Temple. Dawson said that Marvel wouldn't let them use the Carter name because they had big screen plans for it, leading many to believe that would be the character Rachel McAdams was playing since Carter had connections to Doctor Strange in the comics. McAdams is actually playing Christine Palmer, another character who has played the Night Nurse role in the comics, so maybe that means the rumors were at least partially right? Apparently not.
Although it should be said, we don't even really know how big the role of Christine Palmer will even be. We've only seen her in the trailers in scenes related to Stephen Strange's accident, which we're assuming will be dealt with fairly early. To give the character any sort of direction toward working with superheroes she'd have to start interacting with them at some point, and that may not even happen in Doctor Strange. At this point, we just don't know. At the same time, generally, you don't cast Academy Award nominees to make cameos crying at bedsides. We're guessing we will see more of the character in Doctor Strange and in the MCU as well. We'll know for sure once Doctor Strange debuts November 4.
