We’re excited to see Marvel Studios’ first animated project with What If…? expected to air on Disney+ in 2021.
What If…? is an animated series hosted by cosmic entity Uatu The Watcher (played by Jeffrey Wright) and chronicles variant “what if” stories within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In the first season we’ll end up seeing Peggy becoming Captain Carter in WWII, Black Panther’s T’Challa becoming Star-Lord, and we saw a brief glimpse of an episode with Bucky fighting a Marvel Zombies version of Captain America.
Some of those existing What If…? stories have made it to the live-action side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Jane Foster will indeed become Lady Thor in Thor: Love & Thunder come November 5th, 2021.
Another What If…? comic asked if Hulk had the brains of Bruce Banner which sort of happened in Avengers: Endgame with the introduction of Professor Hulk, where Bruce and Hulk have essentially merged.
I’ve put together a list of What If…? stories I think would make for interesting episodes in the future.
President Steve Rogers has a nice ring to it and seeing a Marvel superhero as the president of The United States of America would make for an interesting episode for sure.
If they did this they’d likely have to make up fictional political parties as not to ruffle feathers and it helps that they’ve already established in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that other people hold the White House like President Mattew Ellis (played by William Saddler).
Interesting enough, there is an issue that essentially has the Agents of Atlas taking the place of The Avengers led by Ant-Man & The Wasp’s Jimmy Woo (played by Randall Park) which would be an excellent introduction to the team and placing them in a 1950s setting would be all sorts of fun.
There was recently a relaunch of the team in Marvel Comics featuring a group of superheroes with Asian heritage including Shang-Chi (played by Simu Liu) led by Jimmy Woo.
Here is the lineup in that issue.
- Agent Jimmy Woo
- Ken Hale aka Gorilla-Man
- Aquaria Neptunia aka Namora, The Sea Woman (Namor’s cousin)
- Robert Grayson aka Marvel Boy
- Venus
- Charles Chandler aka The 3-D Man
- Jane Hastings aka Jann of The Jungle
- M-11 aka Human-Robot
Eternals will be introducing us to
Dane Whitman aka Black Knight (played by Kit Harington), a character linked to the King Arthur and Merlin mythology.
This could be an entry point to do an episode where Tony Stark is somehow thrown back in time to the age of King Arthur as it was covered in a What If…? issue.
Think Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court or the slightly more modern version with Sam Raimi’s underrated Army of Darkness.
It would be interesting to see Stark having to combat magic wielding villains by constructing weapons with the materials/tools of that era.
There is another issue with Hulk becoming a barbarian (a nod to the popularity of the Conan comics Marvel was publishing) on the planet K’ai with Queen Jarella (Hulk’s wife) which we have to assume influenced Hulk’s cosmic gladiator tale covered in both Planet Hulk and Thor: Ragnarok.
I think they could explore this a little deeper and possibly have Hulk in a version of The Savage Land (Hulk fighting dinosaurs could be bonkers) or off-world fighting in a world similar to the one inhabited by Conan The Barbarian, just populated with humanoid aliens.
It could potentially give Hulk his love story with Jarella or Planet Hulk’s Caiera The Oldstrong leading to Marvel to finally introducing his son Skaar, who has ties to The Savage Land and Ka-Zar.
Seeing more cosmic tales told in this series would be fun and placing them way forward in the future could be interesting as it would allow them to tackle characters they might never end up using, such as members of the Cosmic Avengers.
There is an issue where the Cosmic Avengers have to go up against the original version of The Guardians of The Galaxy.
The original Cosmic Avengers lineup looked like this.
- Thor
- Starhawk
- Vision
- Commander America
- Jhen The Gammazon
- Irondroid
- Tachyon Torch
A recent incarnation of the Cosmic Avengers was assembled by Loki which included Kang The Conqueror, Ms Marvel, Ant-Man, Hulk, and Emma Frost.
Seeing Loki leading an oddball mix of heroes and villains to take on the Guardians of The Galaxy could be fun.
A cosmic war story featuring a younger version of Nick Fury could be interesting to see and giving fans more of Samuel L. Jackson’s Fury is never a bad thing.
We already got a tiny taste of Fury in outer space with the button scene from Spider-Man: Far From Home where Fury is on some space station surrounded by Skrulls.
This could be an excellent excuse to bring Sgt. Nick Fury & His Howling Commandos into the fold as well, re-imagining Fury leading his comic book version of the Commandos could be just as fun.
Not to mention tackling Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. comics which in an animated adaptation could essentially look like the original G.I. Joe cartoon series on steroids.
Speaking of S.H.I.E.L.D. are a couple of stories having characters joining their ranks including Matt Murdock aka Daredevil, Frank Castle aka The Punisher, Wolverine, and even Jessica Jones.
I think it would be kind of neat to explore an alternative version of S.H.I.E.L.D. where they had a bunch of random heroes under the command of Nick Fury and the government rather than their positions on other teams or vigilante status.
The only thing that would be seen as a problem is that we don’t exactly know for sure what Marvel Studios plans to do with characters like Daredevil, Punisher, and Jessica Jones.
I’d also love to see them also tackle Captain America and Bucky leading The Invaders instead of the Howling Commandos against villains like Baron Blood.
The rather large Invaders roster looked like this.
- Captain America
- Bucky
- Human Torch
- Namor The Sub-Mariner
- Toro
- Union Jack
- Spitfire
- Miss America
- Blazing Skull
- Silver Scorpion
- Destroyer
- The Thin Man
- Arkus
- Whizzer
It might be too early to consider these issues given they haven’t hired actors for Doctor Doom, Fantastic Four, Wolverine, and the X-Men lineup but I’d love to see this list also adapted sometime in the future.
There is also the question of how much of Spider-Man can be used on the show as well.
- What If…Spider-Man Had Joined The Fantastic Four?
- What If…The Alien Costume Had Possessed Spider-Man?
- What If…Doctor Doom Had Become A Hero?
- What If…Wolverine Was Lord of The Vampires?
- What If…Professor X of The X-Men Became The Juggernaut?
- What If…Flash Thompson Became Spider-Man?
