Marvel Fans Just Got Exciting News About Future Seasons Of What If...?
Ever since the multiverse busted wide open in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the company's creatives have been given a fair amount of leeway regarding what is and isn't possible. Suppose one wanted to make an evil Doctor Strange or show what happens when Ultron defeats Thanos. In that case, Marvel's anthology series "What If...?" is a delightful way to take another look at the MCU and engage in some wild speculation.
Based on the series of alternative universe comics of the same name, the first season of "What If...?" proved to be a huge success and holds both a 94% audience and critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. According to Polygon, Season 2 of "What If...?" is expected to be released in early 2023. And the trailer on YouTube features voiceovers explaining that each universe is different and then proceeds to show off the likes of a Bucky Barnes iteration of Captain America, the voice of Khonshu (F. Murray Abraham), a series of Spider-Men, and the Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) asking for people to journey into the unknown. Basically, the next season looks to continue the trend of the first, but it seems like the upcoming Season 2 and the in-development Season 3 will go even farther off the rails as it explores wildly different versions of our favorite heroes and villains.
Stories for Season 2 and Season 3 of What If...? are some of the originally pitched ideas
Speaking with Deadline, director Bryan Andrews was asked if it was tricky figuring out what nine episodes would constitute the first season of "What If...?" He said that the creative team had come up with tons of different ideas and that Kevin Feige asked for them to give him a list of around 30. Andrews then added that even Feige struggled to reduce the list. Through hard work, they eventually got it down to 14 and had to make some serious decisions to get it down to nine episodes for Season 1.
He continued, "But funnily enough, there were ideas that just kept staying around, so a couple of those ideas make it into Season 2, and then there's a few that might be showing up in Season 3. So many good ideas, so many fun ideas, some that were just way too crazy. They're just like, 'We're not ready for that yet.' So I think that's why in Season 3, we'll see some of the crazy stuff that we were pitching out of the gate."
The director has stated that the future seasons of What If...? will get increasingly wacky
When asked what the future has in store for the series, Bryan Andrews explained that the stories will become increasingly weird. This is due to the fact that the first season was played pretty close to Kevin Feige's chest, and now they have been given much more liberty on account of plot devices like the multiverse and the ever-expanding roster of the MCU. Andrews went on to say that Season 2 would be markedly wackier while Season 3 would take things even further. Plus, there's a promise of new characters they haven't had a chance to play around with yet. These fresh additions will integrate with some of the returning characters, impacting the grander machinations of the series moving forward.
He finished by saying, "There's lots of really cool stuff, and I can't wait for people to see it." Ultimately, it sounds like the upcoming season of "What If...?" will continue the trend of looking at how single moments in the MCU can totally reshape familiar stories, and it will be interesting to see what the show has planned and how they execute their vision of a changed Marvel Cinematic Universe.