Multiverses and crossovers are all the rage in superhero entertainment right now. We’ve got former X-Men actors crossing into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, different versions of Batman bumping into The Flash in the DCEU, and Spider-Man villains from across history returning to battle the Wallcrawler.
With all these pop culture behemoths playing fast and loose with their own continuity, it’s surprising that we’ve not seen Star Wars dabble with the multiverse – or maybe we have. Fans have convinced themselves that a recent episode of What If…? may have visited a planet in a galaxy far, far, away.
The theory is that, when Ultron and The Watcher have their interdimensional wrestling match, one of the myriad of worlds they visited was Mustafar – the planet where Darth Vader was born and built his castle. We won’t lie, the planet, with its rivers of lava and towering black structures, looks a lot like Mustafar, but is it Vader’s home? It’s difficult to say, Disney, the studio that owns Marvel, also owns Star Wars, so getting permission to include it isn’t outside the realm of possibility but it could also just be a lava planet.
The biggest barrier to this being Mustafar is the MCU’s own real-life Watcher, Kevin Feige. Feige’s been pretty vociferous in his opinion that the two titanic franchises shouldn’t crossover, and told Yahoo Entertainment as much when one of their journalists asked about the possibility.
Is that Mustafar?? (Star wars cameo in 'What If…' episode 8 minute 23 seconds 15 pic.twitter.com/UPpkKpPcem
— Nadav Gill (@nadavgill1) September 29, 2021
What if spoilers
–
–
–
–
–
Okay but why does that look like mustafar pic.twitter.com/kB1mKgK5lY— Chris 🕸️ TOBI’S BESTFRIEND (@Scarlettspder) September 29, 2021
Here are two screenshots from the new episode of “What If…?” The planets closely resemble Star Wars Prequel planets Felucia and Mustafar.#StarWars #Marvel #WhatIf #Disney https://t.co/Mb8N9sKBDc pic.twitter.com/wtUXXdeSa9
— richie (@richie11pm) September 29, 2021
It’s Mustafar right? That’s Vader’s fortress. @whatifofficial clearly just went to a galaxy far far away. pic.twitter.com/Peg0iegHBK
— Anton The Storyteller (@Anton_Raconteur) September 30, 2021
“If you’d ask me if anything we’re talking about right now was in the realm of possibility 20 years ago,” he said. “I would’ve said, ‘I don’t think so,’ But I really don’t think so. I don’t think there’s any reason for it.”
Still, one person who didn’t think a Star Wars/Marvel crossover was impossible was Stan Lee. The lauded comic book writer told The Big Issue in 2016 that it would be fun to see Luke Skywalker as an Avenger.
“Obviously, the people who produce these [movies] are looking to be as successful as possible,” he explained. “If they feel that incorporating Star Wars with the Marvel characters will be very successful, they’ll find a way to do it. Can you imagine Spider-Man saying: ‘May the force be with you?’ It may come to that! I created the Avengers by taking many of our characters and making a team out of them. We can have as many characters join the Avengers as we want to for future movies. That might be fun. All of a sudden, Luke Skywalker is an Avenger!”
If you love the idea of parallel dimensions and travelling to different worlds, check out our list of the best sci-fi series.