After just three short seasons in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, What If…? is coming to an end. The animated anthology made its debut in 2021 and dived into the madness of the Marvel Multiverse, but as the MCU gears up for What If…? season 3 in 2024, it feels like things are coming to an abrupt stop.
Away from the live-action adventures of the MCU, What If…? arrived as part of the franchise’s ever-expanding Disney+ slate. There are other animated outings in the form of X-Men ‘97, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and the delayed Marvel Zombies serving as a What If…? spin-off. However, when it comes to this series exploring alternate timelines, there are just eight episodes left.
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What If…? Season 3 Is The End of the Road
While What If…?’s multiversal nature has told its own stories away from the main canon of the MCU, fan-favorites like Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Hemsworth, Hayley Atwell, Elizabeth Olsen, and the late Chadwick Boseman have all reprised their roles from live-action. What If…? season 3 tells another crop of Multiverse tales, overseen by Jeffrey Wright’s Uatu, aka the Watcher.
Highlights of What If…? season 3 include the return of White Vision from WandaVision, Moon Knight’s long-awaited reintroduction, and X-Men: The Animated Series’ Alison Sealy-Smith reprising her role from X-Men ‘97 as Storm. Storm wielding Mjölnir was a highlight of the season 3 trailer. And with Disney purchasing 20th Century Fox in 2019, the arrival of the X-Men in the MCU marks a new era for the franchise.
Just as What If…? season 2 introduced Kahhori as a brand-new hero who’s expected to leap into live-action, Natasha Lyonne makes her MCU debut in season 3 as a new creation called Byrdie. There are also rumors that Wright’s Uatu will play a major role in the franchise’s future, while the stalwart Captain Carter seems like an easy fit for Avengers: Secret Wars’ presumed recreation of Battleworld. This comes after Hayley Atwell played a version of the character in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
What If…? has largely told its own stories that have played out over a season and culminated in a massive multiversal team-up. So far, hasn’t had to worry about the main canon of the MCU’s Earth-616. Still, with the series coming to a close, many are expecting What If…? to go out with a bang and set up a future live-action project for the MCU. With two Avengers movies on the horizon, it’s logical to start sowing these seeds now.
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The MCU Is Missing Out On the Potential of What If…? Season 4
Even if Sealy-Smith is unlikely to carry through as Storm for the upcoming X-Men reboot, her role in What If…? reminds fans of the potential that future seasons of What If…? could have held. Similar to how Deadpool & Wolverine included Channing Tatum’s Gambit and Wesley Snipes’ Blade, What If…? season 4 could have let any number of familiar faces lend their vocals to classic roles. Imagine a Ghost Rider episode with Nicolas Cage, Ben Affleck voicing an animated Daredevil, or a Spider-Man-centric episode that makes good on Drew Goddard’s Sinister Six movie that never happened.
More importantly, the upcoming debuts of The Fantastic Four and X-Men include a whole host of characters that would be perfect for their own What If…? stories. After all, live-action versions of Charles Xavier becoming Juggernaut (What If…? #13) and Dazzler being the herald of Galactus (What If…? #33) are unlikely to ever play out in the mainline MCU. Beyond that, the potential of Wolverine fighting Conan the Barbarian (What If…? #16), Punisher becoming Venom (What If…? #44), and the Thing becoming a mutated Hulk-a-like (What If…? #37) are just some of the stories audiences are missing out on.
It’s unclear exactly why What If…? is ending, but it sounds like it was always planned as a three-part story that could springboard into other projects. This has already been showcased by Marvel Zombies spinning off from season 1’s “What If… Zombies?!” Speaking to The Official Marvel Podcast in July 2024, executive producer Brad Winderbaum said season 3 “feels like the completion of a trilogy”:
Although the Watchers were briefly teased in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the live-action MCU is yet to make good on their potential. As the franchise introduces more cosmic entities, like Thor: Love and Thunder did with Eternity and Agatha All Along did with Death, the Watchers (and specifically Uatu) look primed to play a part.
What If…? season 3 is assembling an alternate Avengers lineup with Sam Wilson, Shang-Chi, and Monica Rambeau, which is convenient as all of these are potential recruitments for the supposed New Avengers in the MCU. Even if What If…? is ending in a traditional sense, it’s possible to continue exploring some of its ideas in spin-offs like Marvel Zombies. By enterntaining ideas that are too ‘wild’ for live-action, What If…? has at least served as a testing ground for unusual concepts. There’s already been one Christmas episode, so it might also be an idea to revisit the What If…? for the occasional special.
As disappointing as What If…?’s end might be, it’s important to remember that it’s the only Disney+ series to get a three-season order. Most of the Marvel shows have been limited to a single season, and even the critically acclaimed Loki doesn’t look like it’s returning for a third season. Also, with Secret Wars tipped to destroy the Multiverse and end the current Multiverse Saga before heading into the rumored ‘Mutant Saga’, it makes sense that What If…? is ending. While it’s a shame that fans never got to see Wolverine become Lord of the Vampries (What If…? #24), not even the Watcher knows what the future of the What If…? contains.
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