Jeffrey Wright Says What If’s Watcher Is the Fan to End All Marvel Fans

While every episode of Marvel’s What If is about in a unique time and area inside the MCU’s bigger multiverse, the sequence as an entire is informed from the angle of the Watcher—an all-seeing, all-knowing being sworn to look at, however by no means have interaction with the issues he witnesses. io9 not too long ago had the possibility to speak with the voice bringing Marvel Comics’ well-known being to life in animation, Jeffrey Wright, to search out out what we are able to count on.

Though the Watcher is What If’s narrator and the viewers’s information via the multiverse, there’s rather more to the character than his merely being an ominous presence actually looming within the background. Unlike WandaImaginative and prescient’s newly-crowned Scarlet Witch and Loki’s He Who Remains, who each performed lively roles of their respective sequence, the Watcher is kind of hands-off all through the Disney+ animated sequence. But very very similar to Wanda and the Kang variant, What If’s Watcher is a fan—a fan of storytelling, and the individuals who deliver tales to life just by present and interacting with each other in surprising, chaotic methods.

When io9 not too long ago spoke with actor Jeffrey Wright—star of Westworld, The Batman, and a lot extra—he defined that although the character has at all times stored an excessive distance from Marvel’s heroes and villains, “in some ways he’s kind of defined by them,” Wright informed us. “It’s his life’s passion to observe and connect with them—with their heroism, with their flaws. Without them, he’s nothing in some regard. He adores them and is compelled by them in a way that gives him purpose, and gives his life meaning.”

What Loki’s TVA noticed as Nexus Events that wanted to be stamped out in an effort to forestall a brand new multiverse from springing forth, the Watcher sees as thrilling potentialities for vibrant futures totally different from, however basically just like, those he’s beloved. From Wright’s perspective, the Watcher’s much less of an neutral observer and extra of an lively fan, very similar to What If’s viewers. “In some ways, I think that the passion behind fans’ connection to these characters [comes from] this level of trust, understanding, and hope that is imbued in them in a way that maybe is not found outside of this mythology,” Wright stated. “The deepness of that connection, I think, for fans is a powerful one, and also for the Watcher.”

Because Wright’s Watcher isn’t the primary to seem within the MCU (see: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2), and since What If’s tales are all canon, it stands to cause that the present’s Watcher (Uatu) would possibly pop up within the flesh in some unspecified time in the future, particularly contemplating how the multiverse is about to change into one thing of a large number. Though Wright couldn’t say whether or not there have been any discussions of him reprising his function sooner or later, he additionally didn’t rule out the chance. “What If is very much about the idea that all things are possible, so, that’s a reasonable question,” Wright stated. “I guess the answer to it is, well, what if?”

What If hits Disney+ on August 11.

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