One of the most intriguing projects to emerge from the post-Endgame era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is What If…?, an animated series that revives an old speculative format of storytelling that’s near and dear to Marvel’s heart. Season 1 showed us what would have happened if Peggy Carter had taken the super soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers, if Doctor Strange had gone too far to bring back his beloved Christine, if Ultron had succeeded, and more.
It culminated in a grand finale that tied all of its plot threads together nicely—a somewhat unexpected end of an anthology of seemingly disconnected stories. Now, What If…? season 2 builds upon the proven formula while still finding some ways to Shyamalan us.
Where the first season started with a kick-ass hypothetical that clung too tightly to its source material, What If…? season 2 strikes out on its own with a bold scenario from the cosmic side of the MCU. In this world, Nebula joins the Nova Corps after Thanos is betrayed by Ronan the Accuser, and is the only one who can root out a traitor who wants to hand her new home planet over to the Kree villain. Karen Gillian shines as Nebula again, leaning into her new role as detective.
These initial episodes show the spectrum of What If…?’s potential.
The second episode, out now, is another twist on Peter Quill’s life. Instead of having King T’Challa take his place in space as in season 1, this time the young Star Lord is actually taken to Ego, his father, and embraces his mission to harvest the whole galaxy. Unexpectedly, this leads to the assembly of another unlikely superhero team—almost akin to those “if the Avengers were made in the 80’s” fan-cast memes floating around social media, but with Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, and Laurence Fishburne reprising their supporting roles from previous projects.
The third episode, due on Christmas Eve, leans into its release timing and goes full Die Hard… with gamma vengeance. Without giving anything away—as MCU faithfuls should just see it with their own eyes, even if they skip the rest of this season—a Christmas party at the Avengers Tower starts to look a lot like Nakatomi Plaza, and poor Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is left to defend the base. Eternal intern Darcy (Kat Dennings) is the cherry on top, which begs the question: when will we get the “What if… Darcy had a paying job?” episode she deserves?
These initial episodes show the spectrum of What If…?’s potential. The series can take familiar ancillary characters and put them in the spotlight for a compelling short story, or twist the variables of established MCU events to show a different possible outcome, or just lean into the weirder side of the comic empire and go nuts for an episode. Whichever way they go, the results are perhaps the most compelling and cohesive of the stories the MCU has put out this phase.
With practically every episode of this season, I was impressed at how much they managed to cram into a half hour block. Many streaming shows can feel a little stretched or unbalanced, but What If…? has mastered the art of short story pacing. Individual tales are well-rounded, with moments of genuine character development that left me wishing for more time with these characters.
One of my favourite parts of What If…?‘s first season returns: the proper usage of Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Peggy kicked the series off originally with the origin story of “Captain Carter” and became its most recurring character, so I was elated to see her return and shine this time around (not only as the Captain Carter variant, but a version of unpowered Peggy from the 80s from her Ant-Man cameo). When she returns, she functions as a welcome counterpart to the stoic narration of the Watcher (Jeffrey Wright).
The voice acting in general is remarkable, as well. The first season had a couple awkward lines from actors who may be less accustomed to the intricacies of voice acting, but thankfully this seemed even less frequent this time around. The majority of existing MCU roles are reprised by their actual silver screen performers, and it seems like they had genuine fun with the experience.
There are obvious exceptions like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, whose actors have moved on from the MCU, but the pinch-hitters who have filled their shoes knock it out of the park.
Echoing its first season—and, in a way, Loki—What If…?‘s sophomore run cashes in on our investment by building to a finale that unites many of its pieces, and brings them to an epic conclusion. Unresolved questions, left hanging for two years, are brought to the forefront again by season’s end, and plot seeds planted throughout the entire 20-episode series to-date bear fruit. As the credits rolled, I eagerly jumped online to re-confirm that a third is, indeed, well into production.
Knowing that the impact of these short stories is effectively limited to “side show oddity” status remains a bit of a damper on the whole experience; the most impact the first season has had on the live-action side so far has been cameos in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, at best. At least there was one moment that gave me a little hope for improvement in this department, but again, that’s a moment that MCU fans will want to see for themselves.
When that third season eventually comes around, I do hope we get a little more variety in the source material. There are so many great characters who could carry one of these stories, but it feels like What If…? is still keeping one toe in the shallow end. We could lean on the core Avengers less in the next batch, Marvel, I promise it’s safe.
When it comes to the sort of multiversal mayhem that Marvel in general has popularized over the last fifteen-ish years, What If…? continues to prove that animation is perhaps the best medium for these particular escapades. Just like the Spider-Verse films, Marvel’s storytelling is perhaps at its most tight here, and the daily, Advent Calendar-esque release model is a novel one that should prove a highlight for fans’s year-end celebrations.
