Marvel’s What If…? Review: A Footnote within the MCU Encyclopaedia

What if Steve Rogers’ love curiosity Peggy Carter took the Super Soldier serum? What if the Wakandan prince T’Challa ended up changing into Star-Lord? What if Nick Fury’s huge week was even busier and extra chaotic? What if the entire Avengers, from Iron man to Spider-Man, have been zombies? These are the sort of hypothetical questions requested by Marvel’s What If…? — premiering Wednesday on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar — a brand new animated anthology collection with half-hour lengthy episodes that at instances feels just like the least consequential Marvel Studios challenge ever. Some of that’s as a result of we’re being handled to one-off adventures (in lots of instances), and a few owing to the truth that What If…? will not have any impact on the remainder of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Hardcore followers will need to know this: the brand new Marvel collection is non-canonical. While each movie and TV present we have seen beforehand — from Avengers: Endgame to WandaVision — occurred in the identical universe, What If…?’s occasions do not. Instead, they’re taking place in parallel universes. This flows naturally out of the newest Marvel collection, Loki. Spoiler alert if you have not completed watching all six episodes of its first season. Loki ended with the Sacred Timeline cut up into an infinite variety of branches, giving rise to a multiverse of prospects. Pre-Loki, these “what if?” eventualities would’ve been clipped by the Time Variance Authority, as a result of they “weren’t supposed to happen.” Now they’ll roam wild. Captain Carter? Or a benevolent Star-Lord? Why not.

Though What If…? can’t change the MCU, it advantages from it. After all, over 4 dozen Marvel stars return to reprise their roles in voice type, together with Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), and the late Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther). Not everyone seems to be again although, together with among the greatest ones in Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), and Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow).This may need been as a consequence of COVID-induced scheduling causes or simply an excessive amount of cash for Disney to throw at an animated collection. But it is actually not that a lot of an issue, precisely as a result of it is an animated collection — you are not wanting on the identical face with a distinct voice.

From What If…? to F9 , What to Watch in August

Marvel’s What If…? trades closely on what we already learn about their characters, making quips about their MCU fates (“You almost ripped my arm off,” Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes says in a single episode) or upending the dynamics we have beforehand witnessed (think about a brand new spin on the villains from Avengers: Infinity War, or a much bigger position for a minor Guardians of the Galaxy character). Elsewhere, What If…? indulges in mirror storytelling and position reversals, a bit like how Star Trek’s Mirror Universe operates. What if the nice guys have been the unhealthy guys? And what if the unhealthy guys turned good? There are a number of attention-grabbing setups on What If…?, some a lot in order that I desire them to the canonical model. If solely Hollywood was much less sexist usually and extra open to switching it up when the MCU started.

And that is additionally tied to why a few of What If…? feels disingenuous and like checking a field. Evans spent a decade taking part in Steve Rogers/ Captain America within the MCU — that concerned a standalone trilogy and 4 Avengers motion pictures. What If…? offers Peggy (Hayley Atwell) half an hour to be Captain Carter. The new Marvel collection’ makers say there might be extra adventures for Captain Carter in future seasons, however that is merely not sufficient. Watching the Peggy What If…? episode was like watching a condensed and chopped-off model of Captain America: The First Avenger — however now animated and with Atwell within the lead. Honestly, one other season of Agent Carter would have been extra enjoyable, and that is why What If…? wanted to spend extra time with these alternate variations.

Maybe that is nonetheless on the playing cards. Critics have solely seen three of What If…? season 1’s 9 episodes — it is why this must also be a thought of a assessment of simply these three episodes — and all three are disjointed and chronicle myriad tales. One of them options Boseman’s T’Challa, who is claimed to be again in three extra episodes, although it is unknown in what capability. While reserving my judgment in that regard, I do imagine What If…? would’ve been higher off if it centered its energies on a few characters yearly. That stated, not each story wants that sort of expansive therapy, because the third story exhibits. And for Disney+ and Marvel, the contained anthology strategy means it may possibly enchantment to a wider base of Marvel followers. Essentially, there’s one thing for everybody.

The Empire, Cruella, What If…?, and More on Disney+ Hotstar in August

Benicio del Toro as The Collector, Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/ Star-Lord in What If…?
Photo Credit: Disney/Marvel Studios

For now, the one component tying collectively these disparate What If…? tales is the Disney+ collection’ narrator The Watcher (voiced by Jeffrey Wright, from Westworld) who does simply that: observe. As The Watcher says in the beginning of each What If…? episode, he doesn’t, can’t and won’t intrude. MCU followers have beforehand met a gaggle of Watchers in one of many many post-credit scenes from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 that featured a Stan Lee cameo. Marvel’s What If…? can also be sure collectively by these behind the scenes. Emmy winner and Marvel’s go-to storyboard artist Bryan Andrews (Samurai Jack) is the director on What If…? episodes, with A.C. Bradley (Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia) because the creator and head author — she’s additionally a consulting producer on the upcoming Ms. Marvel collection.

The MCU has at all times been like an enormous TV present. For the primary decade following its inception, we used to get 2-3 hour “episodes” on the large display. And beginning this 12 months, we watched six-hour adventures damaged into precise episodes. What If…? is neither. In what’s a crude analogy, it is a TikTok video model of a Marvel film. In different methods, it is Marvel Studios’ very first TV present in that its tales are contained to half-hour or so. It’s additionally its first animated collection — the studio did oversee Marvel’s M.O.D.O.Okay. after Marvel Television was folded, for what it is price — that enables it to function on a distinct canvas than its commonplace live-action route. The first three episodes do not push the envelope although. As but, What If…? seems like a footnote within the MCU encyclopaedia.

Marvel’s What If…? begins Wednesday, August 11 on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar. New episodes will air each Wednesday till October 6. In India, What If…? is accessible solely in English.