Marvel’s new TV series What If…? hasn’t even started airing yet, but plans are already well underway for a second season. The animated anthology show will explore alternate parallel timelines in the Marvel multiverse where small changes dramatically alter the events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.
Executive producer Brad Winderbaum said, at a press conference attended by The Digital Fix, that they’d discussed the idea of characters introduced during the first season returning. He admitted that Captain Carter, a version of Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who got the super-soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), will return in season 2.
“We realized, I think, early on in development, as we were starting to get A.C.’s scripts, and starting to look at the arc of the series, that there was gonna be a character that bubbled up and became more important,” Winderbaum explained. “Not more important than the rest, but had a strong relationship with The Watcher, who is really our driving force behind the series, and that’s Captain Carter. We realised as we started developing the second season that Captain Carter was going to be the character we would revisit.”
What If…? doesn’t start airing until August 10, and reviews are currently embargoed, but initial reactions have hit social media, and it’s broadly positive. Io9’s Germain Lussier wrote: “Marvel’s What If…? has potential to be their best D+ show yet”, while Fandango’s Erik Davis said the show was “weird, wild, good fun.” A few people have criticised the show’s voice acting; however, with Ethan Anderton, a senior writer for /film, tweeting that he didn’t think the MCU’s stars were very good voice actors.
Starring Jeffrey Wright as The Watcher, What If…? is part of Marvel’s Phase 4. While it might be easy to dismiss the animated show as just a bit of fun, we think it’s clear following the ending of Loki that the Multiverse and these divergent timelines are going to play an important role in Marvel’s future.
Winderbaum actually said as much at the press conference, calling the Multiverse “crucial” to the future of the MCU post Infinity Saga. Sound like those rumours about Spider-Man: No Way Home involving parallel timelines might be true, and don’t even get us started on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Marvel’s What If…? will be streaming on Disney Plus from August 11