This article accommodates spoilers for What If…? If you are not caught up but, try our spoiler-free evaluate of What If…? Season 3.
There’s a second in the direction of the start of What If…? Season 3 Episode 6, “What If… 1872?” the place The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) explains that we’re on the far reaches of the multiverse, the place issues get a lot weirder. “Think much less ‘What if?’” he says, “And extra ‘What the hell?’” That truly appears to be the ethos for everything of Season 3 of Marvel Animation’s What If…? – and albeit, it’s the place the present ought to have began with. Instead, the animated collection is wrapping up its run, simply because it discovered its groove.
First introduced in 2019 upfront of the discharge of Avengers Endgame (although extra importantly given it was introduced on a Disney traders name, upfront of the discharge of Disney+), What If…? was meant to be a daring new growth for Marvel, the primary of its animated collection to launch on the streaming service. It would discover alternate takes on the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). And in an at-the-time unprecedented transfer, would come with the actors from the large display, enjoying voices on the small display. As one time Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb was fond of claiming, it’s all related… The MCU was one, huge place whether or not you have been watching TV or films, live-action or animation.
Unfortunately, that’s not precisely what occurred, on any entrance. Yes, actors starting from Tom Hiddleston to Josh Brolin, to Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo reprised their roles on What If…? But a lot didn’t make it again for the animated collection, changed by wonderful, veteran voice actors as a substitute. And it additionally grew to become clear after Season 1’s darkish tackle Doctor Strange exploring a multiverse of insanity had completely nothing to do with the darkish Doctor Strange who appeared on display in, uh, Doctor Strange within the Multiverse of Madness that “it’s all related” meant as a lot right here within the Nü MCU because it did with Loeb’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Marvel’s Netflix collection like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and that different one, no matter it was. Not The Punisher. The different one.
What If…? admirably tried to loop it again to the MCU correct on the finish of Season 2 with a tag displaying The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) and Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell) wanting on the Loktree – aka, the multiversal tree Loki become/is holding collectively from the top of Loki Season 2. But as Season 3 picks up, that isn’t referred to in any possible way. And within the entirety of this new season, the multiverse is as a substitute visually proven because the prism The Watcher is watching via; not any of the opposite tree-like visible representations proven elsewhere within the MCU.
It’s significantly irritating to see this given how slavishly What If…? has hewn to MCU storylines all through the earlier two seasons. While there have been variations, the collection has principally offered play-it-safe riffs on MCU films. As a lot enjoyable as Atwell appears to be having enjoying Captain Carter, the episodes she’s appeared in ranged from an almost beat-by-beat recreation of Captain America: The First Avenger, to a mash-up between Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Black Widow. An episode with T’Challa changing into Star-Lord in Season 1 was principally Guardians of the Galaxy. Even an episode that went off-script in Season 2, “What if… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?” and didn’t riff off an MCU film was nonetheless one thing else: Die Hard, within the MCU.
Perhaps extra distressing is that a lot of the episodes didn’t operate as an precise “what if” state of affairs. They’d begin in a single place, however then use that much less as a collection of dominos toppling a la the best way the title is handled in Marvel Comics, and finish in one other place fully that might as a substitute head in the direction of the plot of an MCU film. “What If… Hela Found The Ten Rings?” for instance, was much less in regards to the title query and extra about throwing Hela into the plot of Shang-Chi. “What If… Iron Man Crashed Into The Grandmaster?” despatched Tony Stark to Sakaar after which caught him in a Fast and the Furious riff on Thor: Ragnarok.
There’s nothing inherently incorrect with asking questions no one had ever requested earlier than, however there’s a center floor between what the comics do – which is current these dominos falling from a easy twist on a storyline, to at least one with often devastating penalties – and tweaking the state of affairs with out presenting any new data.
Not to shift exhibits, universes, and even streaming providers, however the ultimate season of Star Trek Lower Decks aired a pointed episode in regards to the points with multiverse storytelling earlier this 12 months. In the second to final episode of the collection, “Fissure Quest,” the present checked in with an alternate model of the present’s Boimler (Jack Quaid) who was piloting a starship manned by multiversal variants of varied Star Trek characters… And it was driving him insane. Midway via the episode, whereas attempting to determine who’s inflicting multiversal riffs, he shouts, “They’re most likely a hacky evil model of somebody everyone knows. A reverse Picard or Borgified Kirk or [bleep] it, I do not know, human Worf. That’s all of the multiverse is! Lazy, by-product remixes!” Later, he even notes, “The multiverse is only a rehash of stuff I already know.”
Despite his offended protestations, Boimler is offered with one other chance. A multiversal tackle the multiverse, if you’ll, by an alternate model of Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodard) from Star Trek: First Contact. Why is she exploring the multiverse? “To higher perceive ourselves,” she says. “It’s enjoyable to study aliens, however studying about humanity, that is one thing else.”
While that episode was solely launched two weeks earlier than What If…? Season 3 premiered, the Marvel present has been very slowly coming round to that concept. The majority of What If…? episodes have straddled the road of “by-product remixes” (we received’t say lazy given the lots of of people that have put monumental effort into making these animated episodes), it’s been clear the center of the present is extra within the ongoing story of The Watcher studying to like and respect humanity. And past that, the friendship between the cosmic being, and the down-to-earth Peggy Carter. Episodes devoid of practically something having to do with the MCU like “What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?” launched new concepts and characters with out utilizing pre-existing plots as a tenet.
And Season 3 goes off the rails nearly fully. While there’s nonetheless a cursory try to attach the present to the MCU, the dominos are much less stacked again to again than ever earlier than. The season premiere, “What If… the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?” begins with the query we’ve all assuredly requested earlier than, “What if Sam Wilson was working in Washington D.C. and ran into Bruce Banner as a substitute of Steve Rogers?” And naturally, that in some way finally ends up with the Voltron Avengers combating a large Kaiju Hulk. “What If… Agatha Went to Hollywood?” relies type of on the plot of Eternals, however once more is a threadbare excuse to take one musical character (Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness) and jam her along with one other musical character (Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo).
“What If… the Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier?” is a ridiculous highway journey buddy comedy. “What If… 1872?,” aka the one The Watcher calls “What the hell” is a Western with Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld). And “What If… Howard the Duck Got Hitched?” is among the most unhinged episodes of TV streamed this 12 months, that includes Howard the Duck (Seth Green) and Darcy (Kat Dennings) having an egg collectively that each forgotten villain within the MCU desires to both steal, eat, or each. The episode isn’t even a “what if” state of affairs, regardless of the title; it’s a sequel to Season 1’s Party Thor episode, which briefly launched Howard and Darcy to one another throughout an intergalactic celebration in Vegas.
With the collection wrapping up, it’s clear the oldsters behind What If…? went for broke this season, throwing each loopy thought on the wall as a result of they might by no means get an opportunity to do any of those concepts ever once more. They even finish with The Watcher “nope”ing out of the entire premise of the present, forming his personal Watcher Council and battling his uptight mentors within the ultimate episodes of the season. He discovers what Boimler found, that it’s much more fascinating to study humanity, heroism, and what characters do when the chips are down, moderately than merely rehash what we’ve seen earlier than. He, like us, is bored with watching the identical factor – over, and over, and over once more.
Beyond that, What If…? Season 3 works laborious to turn into a reclamation challenge for the refuse of the MCU. Sure, we’ve gotten guarantees that these items will come again – and a few of them are already within the works. But we haven’t seen Shang-Chi since his self-titled film. Kate Bishop popped up in an end-credits scene in The Marvels after showing on Hawkeye, however that’s it. Eternals has been so ignored it’s a continuing meme on-line about when the MCU will lastly acknowledge that there’s a large hand protruding of the ocean. What If…? explores the occasions of that film in not one, however two episodes in Season 3. The second time is to delve into the character of Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a personality who appeared in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, after which was spun off right into a TV present that has been sitting on the shelf for years at this level (it’s lastly scheduled to premiere a while in 2025).
What If…?, by the need of promoting subscriptions to an on the time new streaming service and breaking via the relative stigma of watching animation, was bought on security. Big stars, premises you understand. But it principally didn’t work. Here, on the finish, the collection has leaned into the bizarre, wild, and fantastic corners of the MCU. The what the hell, if you’ll… And simply because it has discovered its place within the Marvel Universe, it’s performed.
In truth, the season even ends with a montage of all of the issues we’ll possible by no means see on TV, barring a one-off What If…? particular in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later: Weapon X Thanos, Kingo Iron Man, Ms. Marvel Ant-Man, and lots of, many extra. Things that would have explored thrilling takes on Marvel characters in a method we’ve by no means seen earlier than, one distinctive to animation. Instead, we’ll simply need to ponder the query: what if?
