Marvel Studios’ What If…? is an animated anthology series that explores different possibilities in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Each episode presents a twist on the events that fans know and love, such as Peggy Carter becoming the first Avenger instead of Steve Rogers, or Doctor Strange losing his heart instead of his hands. The series also features The Watcher, a cosmic observer, an entity who narrates and occasionally intervenes (But he can’t ‘intervene’ though) in the stories.
The second season of What If…? continues to deliver exciting and surprising stories that mix and match MCU characters and concepts, such as Nebula joining the Nova Corps, Hela finding the Ten Rings, or the Avengers formed back in 1602.
Fans of alternate history comics like Gotham by Gaslight and X-Men 1602 will enjoy these episodes, as well as the return of fan-favourite characters like Captain Carter, and Zombie Scarlet Witch.
The second season also introduces a new superhero to the MCU: Kahhori, a Native American woman who has no comic book counterpart. She is a powerful and mysterious figure who harnessed the power of Space Stone/ Tesseract and plays a key role in the season finale, which pushes the boundaries of what an animated spinoff can do.
Will there be a third season of What If…?
The answer is yes, and it’s already in the works.
Marvel Studios has confirmed that Season 3 of What If…? is in development, and has even teased one of the upcoming episodes that will feature Red Guardian and the Winter Soldier. This episode seems to be inspired by the Black Widow and Captain America movies, and will likely offer a new perspective on their stories.
What will the third season be about?
Like the previous seasons, the third season will consist of standalone stories that have a connection to The Watcher, who acts as the viewer’s proxy.
“The fact that we have What If…? going into a third season, it means that we can go a little bit deeper with these characters, especially the Watcher,” said Marvel Studios’ Brad Winderbaum.
“It’s a Multiverse story, they’re standalone stories, but there is a serialized aspect to it because there’s this narrator who loves the subjects of these stories, he’s the ultimate fanboy. He’s watching, like we all watch. And he loves these characters like we do. So we can dig in a little deeper into what makes him tick in the second season, and then into the third season, we kind of get to know his humanity a lot more.”
When will the third season be released?
We don’t have an exact date yet, but the third season will be “streaming soon,” according to Marvel Studios. They have also stated that they want to make What If…? an “annual release”, which suggests that we might see the third season in 2024.
