Summary
- Marvel’s What If…? tackled alternate reality stories with an overarching plot involving the Watcher.
- Characters like Beta Ray Bill, Ghost Rider, and Iron Fist were ruled off-limits for the show.
- The MCU could introduce these characters excluded from What If…? soon.
Marvel’s What If…? saw a lot of both popular and niche Marvel characters make interesting appearances in the show’s alternate realities, but a few of the more obvious choices missing from that lineup might give fans an insight into what to expect from the MCU in the near future.
What If…? was an instant hit with longtime Marvel fans, who were familiar with the show’s comic book inspiration and had a plethora of already-done stories in mind for the adaptation. While the inspiration certainly peaked through, What If…? would take a more layered approach to the premise by connecting the oft-disparate alternate reality stories at the core of the format with an overarching plot involving the Watcher, another character the show propelled into the limelight. The show would get renewals through the third season, which saw the central plot resolved in a predictable multiversal spectacle. Unfortunately, this finale would be serving double duty, as Marvel exec Brad Winderbaum confirmed that What If..? wasn’t getting another season after the third installment rounded up the overarching narrative.
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With the show now conclusively at an end, some fan discussion has shifted from what happened in the finale to all the scenarios that didn’t happen over the course of the show’s three seasons, with a focus on characters that would’ve been a great addition to the series premise. While even Marvel Studios director Bryan Andrews, who worked on the show’s final installment, admitted that What If …? season three had some missed opportunities, some of those might not have been due to overlooking potential additions. According to Andrews, who discussed the show’s third and concluding story arc in an interview available on Agents of Fandom’s YouTube channel, some things were off the table for the team to work with, including three Marvel characters that would have made some interesting additions. When asked about characters that the team wanted to use that were ruled off-limits by the higher-ups, Andrews highlighted three big names: Beta Ray Bill, Ghost Rider, and Danny Rand’s Iron Fist. While massive, fans of the MCU might find the reason Andrews gave behind these decisions to be more interesting than the actual names.
They were very careful about making sure we don’t step on the toes of films that are about to come out, and throughout our tenure, our writers often would be coming out with stuff, and the higher-ups would have to be like ‘no, no, no, ‘cuz that’s happening in Guardians’ or no, no, no, ‘cuz that’s happening in such and such,’ and they’re like really close and sometimes almost spot on to some of the things that are actually happening in those movies, so they watch out pretty good. Which is why I like it when we do stories that just are huuge, just crazy out there, and really genre-specific, you know…
This interesting titbit means that the three characters mentioned here might be bound for the MCU sooner rather than later, as all three were flagged when added to the show. Andrews explains that the studio gave a wholly unenthusiastic response to utilizing Ghost Rider in the show, which explains why fans only got the shortest of glimpses of a Samurai variant of the character in the show’s closing monologue, and then mentions a planned “super-mega-kung-fu-centric episode” with Rand’s Iron Fist and Shang Chi that never got greenlit, which explains why the Kwai Jun-Fan version of the character was featured in episode 6 instead. No extra details are given about what the plan was for Beta Ray Bill, but considering the character’s history, origins, and powers, there are all sorts of possibilities that could have been explored. Unfortunately, it was clear that What If…? would absolutely ruin the MCU’s canon from the get-go, which pretty much ensured these characters wouldn’t be able to appear in What If…? first.
It’s unsurprising that Marvel Studios wants to keep upcoming heroes out of the oft-confusing alternate realities of the What If…? series, as the MCU as a franchise really lives and dies on the tried and true characterization the studio has gotten down to a fine science. Having a character introduced in that format first and then into the mainline MCU would all but guarantee confusion for some fans, even if only by injecting animated Disney+ discourse into the conversation about a larger theatrical entry. That being said, Ghost Rider and Beta Ray Bill bring massive new possibilities for the MCU, and Iron Fist’s debut could be great for Daredevil: Born Again in later seasons, and makes a great bridge between the street-level action and the MCU’s more high-stakes conflicts. Any of these characters would make as interesting an addition as Robert Downey Jr.’s incoming Doctor Doom, who has an uphill battle ahead to be taken seriously as an MCU villain.
While the initial overarching plot was resolved in the third season, that shouldn’t be the end of What If…? for Marvel. There’s even more potential for stories to tell with the interconnected plot settled, and if the series goes on, then the team behind it will even get a shot at the characters they missed out on featuring after they make their MCU debuts.
Marvel’s What If…? is available to stream on Disney+.
What If…?
- Release Date
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2021 – 2024
- Showrunner
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Ashley Bradley
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Source: Agents of Fandom/YouTube