Let’s Talk Marvel’s WHAT IF? (SPOILERS)

Topic

First episode up now.

Not feeling any urgency with this series. I’ll probably watch it eventually, or at least some of it.

Replies

I forgot this was out today.

I’ve been looking forward to this series quite a bit, seems like a good opportunity to cut loose and have a bit of fun with the established concepts from the movies.

I felt like the previous MCU Disney+ TV series were constrained by not really being able to develop the characters much (so the movie-only audiences won’t feel like they missed something), but this shouldn’t have the same problem.

Just finished episode 1. I thought it was decent enough, pretty much like an issue of the comic, really.

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Dave

Oh, this is out? Cool, will give it a look.

Marvel’s What If…? Spider-Man Episode Was Canceled for Being ‘Too Dark”

https://movieweb.com/amp/what-if-spider-man-episode-canceled-disney-plus/

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Rocket

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Just finished episode 1. I thought it was decent enough, pretty much like an issue of the comic, really.

Yeah, it’s a pretty faithful adaptation of the original comic series really, in that it races through retelling an altered version of a much bigger story in a very limited amount of space and so doesn’t quite manage to reach its potential. It’s all well and good coming up with a decent concept and parallels back to the original story, but you still need to come up with a strong story you can actually tell within the space you have, which this one doesn’t quite manage.

That said, I thought visually it was fantastic. Utterly gorgeous. Which was surprising, as I didn’t think much of the animation style from the previews, but yeah, it’s excellent. I’d love to see Disney (you know, actual Disney Disney) do something in this style.

Oh and I thought they did pretty well with the casting. Dominic Cooper seemed ill at ease playing Howard Stark again, but the rest did alright with what they had and the soundalikes fit in well. Having Bradley Whitford reprise his character from the first Agent Carter one-shot to replace Tommy Lee Jones was a smart move too. Although I did accidentally set myself up for a bit of disappointment as I’d somehow convinced myself Keith David was playing Uatu, but it was Jeffrey Wright, who basically sounds like a less impressive Keith David.

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lorcan_nagle

The animation style and action choreography is the best I’ve seen from a western-style animated series in I-don’t-know-how-long.

I am loving this series.

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Dave, njerry, lorcan_nagle

The animation was really good, nice use of cell-shaded 3D.

The story was meh, like others said, it was very much like a What If issue, so I guess it’s alright in that regard… some of the dialogues were horrible and there were some writing snafus, but it’s okay.

Funny how they totally re-cast some characters… they wiped out Hugo Weaving from continuity it seems.

One thing though, that voice for the Watcher is just not good… I always figured he’d sound more alien and regal, not just like a generic dude.

I loved it. Thought the animation was great, there were loads of fun moments, and it packed more story in than an entire series of the other MCU shows. Really enjoyed the Peggy-Steve relationship and their designs.

I could have watched another half hour of this straight away. Feels like this series is going to be able to cut loose and just have fun in a way that the other Disney+ shows haven’t really been able to.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Also, a non-super-soldier Steve as a prototype Iron Man reminded me a lot of the JMS/Tommy Lee Edwards series Bullet Points, basically a giant What If? where Erskine is killed before Steve becomes Cap.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

I enjoyed it. It was a fun little half hour.

I do hope Disney/Marvel does a feature length MCU film in this animation still.

I’m only just now realising they should have called her Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine.

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lorcan_nagle

The animation was beautiful. The dialogue was cheesy but fun. Sebastian Stan got some really goofy lines.  Hayley Atwell’s performance made me regret not getting more Agent Carter. I liked how Captain Carter got put “on ice” for 70 years.

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Todd

This was a great first episode.  Huge amount of fun, excellent voice cast, good visuals – it had it all

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Todd

Just finished it.

It was very good as most of you already said.

I read What if back in the day (or the issues that interested me) and I am reminded of the fact that I really don’t like alternate realities that don’t work out better than the original situation. I thought of the movie “Yesterday” and I don’t like a reality where the Beatles were erased from continuity… In the old MW forum, I once started a thread of alternate history worlds like the 60s where JFK was never assassinated and so on and it was fun (Henry Blanco gave some good ones).

But I know that Steve Rogers is Capt. America still, just as the Beatles existed. But entertaining the thoughts of…

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[Martin Smith]

To be honest, the premise of this week’s episode, when I saw it beforehand, seemed a bit naff. A little MadLib-esque. What if X was Y, fill in the blanks as you like.

But, the episode was great. Really funny, had a good, entertaining plot beyond just the premise, nice bit of fan-service and the rapid fire exchange early on between T’Challa and Korath was impressive.

This series is soaring above my expectations.

Impressive again who they managed to come in and reprise their roles for it though. And bit bizarre they can get Kurt Russell for one line, but Chris Pratt – who is on a big multi-project deal – was apparently unavailable.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Martin Smith.

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lorcan_nagle

Yeah, that one was a lot of fun, I think they stretched the gag of T’Challa’s Star Lord as a Paragon of justice a bit too far, but the story worked well, there were a lot of laughs, and it was fun to see Cosmo and Howard again.

I really enjoyed the T’Challa as Starlord episode. That was a lot of fun.

This week’s episode, on the other hand, really didn’t do it for me. It was a poorly constructed whodunit. This episode has been the weakest one for me so far.

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lorcan_nagle

Todd wrote:

This week’s episode, on the other hand, really didn’t do it for me. It was a poorly constructed whodunit. This episode has been the weakest one for me so far.

I feel just the opposite. The first two episodes were just about replacing one character with another; the latest one actually crafted an alternate timeline where significant changes took place that led to a different future. This one felt like someone actually gave thought to the potential consequences rather than giving us Captain America in a woman’s body.

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Dave, Rocket, lorcan_nagle

njerry wrote:

Todd wrote:

This week’s episode, on the other hand, really didn’t do it for me. It was a poorly constructed whodunit. This episode has been the weakest one for me so far.

I feel just the opposite. The first two episodes were just about replacing one character with another; the latest one actually crafted an alternate timeline where significant changes took place that led to a different future. This one felt like someone actually gave thought to the potential consequences rather than giving us Captain America in a woman’s body.

Conceptually, I did appreciate that they were trying to do something different.

It was the execution of the mystery, however, where it failed for me. Clues for the motivation for the killer were not clearly established. It wasn’t until the attack on Black Widow that you pretty much knew who did it. Even though they only had about half an hour, the mystery could have been written a lot better.

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lorcan_nagle

I don’t know, it had me guessing and the reveal made sense (even if the incredible expanding Hulk was a little ridiculous visually) so that worked for me. And getting crazy Yellowjacket Pym in the MCU was nice to see. I did also rather love Loki in this episode.

It hit another authentic What If? standard of being an “everybody dies!” story too.

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Dave, Rocket, lorcan_nagle

Just caught up on the last two. The Black Panther/Star Lord one was pretty dull and didn’t have much story but I enjoyed the Avengers one even if it did tip its hand about the killer too early.

The great thing about it being a series of one-shots is that if the concept of one episode is a bit duff then it’s not like it kills the whole series.

Martin Smith wrote:

(even if the incredible expanding Hulk was a little ridiculous visually)

I got strong Akira vibes from that bit.

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Todd

I thought this week’s episode with Strange was ok, but somehow got less interesting as it went along. I was waiting for a final twist that never came. Still, a decent cast and some nice animation.

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lorcan_nagle

I thought the ending was quite powerful, with Strange interacting with Uatu. I wonder if that’ll be a growing element; Uatu being affected by what he sees.

I did think the episode suffered a little from insisting that Christine’s death is some immutable thing that can’t be changed even by time travel given it’s a story in an anthology series about the multiverse and her death is the key difference from the “main” universe.

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lorcan_nagle

Martin Smith wrote:

I did think the episode suffered a little from insisting that Christine’s death is some immutable thing that can’t be changed even by time travel given it’s a story in an anthology series about the multiverse and her death is the key difference from the “main” universe.

Yes. I thought the twist at the end was going to be that alt-Strange sacrificed himself so there could be a universe where she didn’t die, which would end up being our universe.

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lorcan_nagle

I was impressed that all the actors from the DR. STRANGE film provided the voices to this episode, particularly Tilda Swinton and Rachel McAdams. AND Leslie Bibb, who played Christine Everhart in the first IRON MAN film, reprises her role briefly in this episode, which is just a cool Easter egg.

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Rocket, Dave, Todd

njerry wrote:

I was impressed that all the actors from the DR. STRANGE film provided the voices to this episode, particularly Tilda Swinton and Rachel McAdams. AND Leslie Bibb, who played Christine Everhart in the first IRON MAN film, reprises her role briefly in this episode, which is just a cool Easter egg.

It’s an easy gig. A few hours in a recording booth without all the rigmarole of doing it live action. It was probably easier to schedule for many. Some couldn’t due to scheduling conflicts or wouldn’t (coughcoughRDJcoughcough).

njerry wrote:

I was impressed that all the actors from the DR. STRANGE film provided the voices to this episode, particularly Tilda Swinton and Rachel McAdams. AND Leslie Bibb, who played Christine Everhart in the first IRON MAN film, reprises her role briefly in this episode, which is just a cool Easter egg.

Yeah, great cast for this one.

Martin Smith wrote:

I did think the episode suffered a little from insisting that Christine’s death is some immutable thing that can’t be changed even by time travel given it’s a story in an anthology series about the multiverse and her death is the key difference from the “main” universe.

Yeah that was kinda stupid… but the episode was fun. I was kinda hoping for more visually weird / clever things, considering it’s animation and they can do whatever… but alas, there were a lot of energy beams instead.

Still though, a good reminder of why Doctor Strange is probably the only movie I’m interested in, going forward… they can get weird with him… I’m not so sure Raimi will do it justice, but we’ll see… I mean, for all we know all of the action sequences were already CGI’ed by the time he came in =P

The Marvel Zombies episode was fun enough, but felt more like a series of moments they wanted to do rather than a really coherent story overall.

Plus it’s a little wonky continuity-wise (it’s set around the start of Infinity War but seems to ignore all of the post-Civil War status quo).

Good concept though. Feels like it could have been a series in its own right.

It was very much a zombie movie in the MCU.

[Martin Smith]

When I saw there was going to be a zombie episode in the series, I did roll my eyes a little. “Oh, ok, zombies. If we must then.” Because I don’t really give a damn about zombie stories in general. But I thought this was actually pretty enjoyable and better than Marvel Zombies, which it borrowed stuff from.

One really smart thing it did was centring it around Peter because, given MCU Peter’s obsession with movies, it allowed them to do the genre-savvy stuff which elevated it beyond just “oh no, zombies”. I also quite liked getting to see Hope be part of an Avengers team of sorts and still being the hyper-capable one. It managed to have authenticity of character with Vision’s actions especially. And having Kurt there to do his Baba Yaga thing again for Wanda was cute. And the ants were a very clever addition.

But it really felt like it slammed into a wall at the end. I wasn’t expecting full conclusion or even a happy ending, but it really did just kind of go “here’s zombie Thanos!” as if that was an ending in of itself. But it doesn’t really make sense (why would he have gone to Wakanda in this timeline? Would he really have been infected given he had 5/6 of the Gems? Also, why didn’t they take Hope’s super-useful tech off her before she turned?). I was expecting a short coda of Thanos or the Guardians turning up to find an entirely zombie planet, to be honest.

Still, it was fun and a lot better than I initially feared.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Martin Smith.

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Dave

Oh and one other good thing about the episode is that it helped me finally shift my OHC copy of Marvel Zombies, which I’ve been trying to get rid of for years now. But there’s so many around the market is dead and the prices rock bottom. I coincidentally happened to list it on eBay for an semi-optimistic price the other week, no interest really and I thought about lowering the price and then last night it got a load of hits, watchers and then sold. Thanks, Disney+!

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Todd

Martin Smith wrote:

One really smart thing it did was centring it around Peter because, given MCU Peter’s obsession with movies, it allowed them to do the genre-savvy stuff which elevated it beyond just “oh no, zombies”.

Peter is obviously a Mutant Enemy fan.

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Uncle Retrospective

Martin Smith wrote:

But it really felt like it slammed into a wall at the end. I wasn’t expecting full conclusion or even a happy ending, but it really did just kind of go “here’s zombie Thanos!” as if that was an ending in of itself. But it doesn’t really make sense (why would he have gone to Wakanda in this timeline? Would he really have been infected given he had 5/6 of the Gems? Also, why didn’t they take Hope’s super-useful tech off her before she turned?). I was expecting a short coda of Thanos or the Guardians turning up to find an entirely zombie planet, to be honest.

The story logic is all over the place. They make a huge deal of exposed flesh being a vulnerability early on, and then half of them are still running around in T-Shirts.

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Todd, Martin Smith

Meh, this one was pretty bad… the writing, the “comedy” and the dialogues all blergh… That head-only Scott was fuckin’ terrible too.

How did Tony even get infected? He’s literally the most protected against a bite.

Also, it’s now twice they’ve made Pym the problem… are they trying to tell us something? =P

Not gonna lie, this popped into my head when hope carried everyone to the base:

I’m on vacation this week and don’t have access to Disney +. I notice that nobody has posted about this week’s episode. Should I assume that means it was not worth commenting on?

njerry wrote:

I’m on vacation this week and don’t have access to Disney +. I notice that nobody has posted about this week’s episode. Should I assume that means it was not worth commenting on?

I just watched it earlier.

It was okay but it ended kind of abruptly. They should have either trimmed the front end a bit and gave it a better ending or added some time to give it a decent conclusion.

The internet theory I’ve been seeing is that all of the episodes will tie together in the season finale.

Honestly, the show is a lot like the comic series: About one in ten are pretty good while the rest are meh at best with a lot of the stories trying (and often failing) to tell a large scale tale in a very confined format.

The series has been okay but nothing spectacular.

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lorcan_nagle, Al-x

I stopped watching weekly after the second one. The plots didn’t attract me. Zombies, Pym, Dr Strange …

I MIGHT check out this one with Killmonger rescuing Stark.

It was a weird episode. It starts strong but after the first five minutes or so it just tails off into a load of disjointed faffing around without a real through-line, and then just ends at a random point. Like they pitched it on the initial concept without really thinking about how it would develop into a full story.

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Rocket, Todd, lorcan_nagle

Todd wrote:

Honestly, the show is a lot like the comic series: About one in ten are pretty good while the rest are meh at best with a lot of the stories trying (and often failing) to tell a large scale tale in a very confined format.

Very much this. I’m broadly enjoying it, but it’s very much like the comic where there’s no consistent quality, and the show’s tendency to do what’s essentially chapter 1 of a larger story and leave it at that means that the story that is told is not always satisfying as an internal 30-40 minutes of TV.

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Todd, Dave

Dave wrote:

It was a weird episode. It starts strong but after the first five minutes or so it just tails off into a load of disjointed faffing around without a real through-line, and then just ends at a random point. Like they pitched it on the initial concept without really thinking about how it would develop into a full story.

Yeah, I agree. It was pretty flat and everything seemed a slightly unnecessary complication to Killmonger’s original plan in Black Panther.

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Todd, Dave

Todd wrote:

The internet theory I’ve been seeing is that all of the episodes will tie together in the season finale.

Honestly, this would make sense and could help retroactively improve some of the episodes and their endings.

But I remember this being a theory for the first Chibnall series of Doctor Who too (“all these loose plot threads and unsatisfying endings are obviously laying the foundations for everything to come together in the finale!”) and it turned out it was just bad writing.

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Rocket, Todd

Dave wrote:

Like they pitched it on the initial concept without really thinking about how it would develop into a full story.

Definitely this. Stark’s “backup signal” when the drones attack inside of Wakanda makes no sense. KM knows who killed his father yet stands next to him for much of the episode. Having US and Wakanda destroy each other in a war hinders his attempt to rule the world.

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Todd

The “back-up signal” was a convenient lie for the remote transponder Killmonger had but your other points are totally valid. I really don’t get why he didn’t try to get revenge on T’Chaka.

I thought this week’s episode was a heck of a lot fun and shows off the flexibility of the format (and characters). I was pleasantly surprised that they got Chris Hemsworth in for Thor, as they’d sort of danced around him before now which made me think he wasn’t available/interested. Good thing he was, because I don’t think this would have worked with a soundalike (as good as some of them are).

Plus, more Howard is always a good thing. Really want to go through it and see if they snuck in any non-MCU cameos in the crowd shots.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle, Uncle Retrospective

Martin Smith wrote:

I thought this week’s episode was a heck of a lot fun and shows off the flexibility of the format (and characters). I was pleasantly surprised that they got Chris Hemsworth in for Thor, as they’d sort of danced around him before now which made me think he wasn’t available/interested. Good thing he was, because I don’t think this would have worked with a soundalike (as good as some of them are).

Plus, more Howard is always a good thing. Really want to go through it and see if they snuck in any non-MCU cameos in the crowd shots.

Yeah, it was a bit hackneyed but it worked overall, and Ultron sting at the end aside, it was a self-contained story. The Thor/Captain Marvel fight worked really well and it the animated format let them really go all out on what two major power level characters kicking the shit out of each other would look like

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Todd

lorcan_nagle wrote:

The Thor/Captain Marvel fight worked really well and it the animated format let them really go all out on what two major power level characters kicking the shit out of each other would look like

Yeah and I loved that they leaned into the Looney Tunes-esque aspects of that, like having the country names be visible when they were hitting each other across the planet.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

That was a lot of fun. Howard and Darcy The Duck!!!

It really made me wish Chris Hemsworth would do more comedy films rather than straight action movies. Outside of the MCU, his action movies tend to be rather meh. I think he would enjoy far more success if he leaned into comedy. He has the knack for it.

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Martin Smith

Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood for it, but it didn’t work for me – there’s just no story there, I didn’t think it was that funny, and it all gets old within a few minutes.

Plus Thor weirdly reminded me of Boris Johnson at times, which is the last thing you want.

The Mother-Frigga joke was good though.

Todd wrote:

Outside of the MCU, his action movies tend to be rather meh. I think he would enjoy far more success if he leaned into comedy. He has the knack for it.

Yes, Chris Hemsworth and Emilia Clarke also (ignore that she already did Last Christmas, which was terrible). Maybe even together.

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Todd

Todd wrote:

I think he would enjoy far more success if he leaned into comedy. He has the knack for it.

He was the funniest thing in the Ghostbusters reboot.

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Todd

Dave wrote:

Todd wrote:

I think he would enjoy far more success if he leaned into comedy. He has the knack for it.

He was the funniest thing in the Ghostbusters reboot.

I thought the same thing.

Meh, I’m not into this trend of making Thor into a joke… doesn’t help that even though it was a times fun, most of the writing was flat-out attrocious.

Also, kinda funny they couldn’t even make Captain Woodplank likeable in a comedic self-contained animated episode… holy crap!!!

Lastly: unbearded Thor should NEVER be a thing ever again. doesn’t even work in animation.

Jon wrote:

Lastly: unbearded Thor should NEVER be a thing ever again. doesn’t even work in animation.

The design reminded me a lot of Prince Charming from Shrek.

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Rocket, Todd

Yes, the whole thing was very Shrek-esque I suppose… I mean, I wouldn’t know ’cause I’ve never seen any Shrek crap, now that I think about it, but you know… that kind of thing.

Jon wrote:

Yes, the whole thing was very Shrek-esque I suppose… I mean, I wouldn’t know ’cause I’ve never seen any Shrek

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Rocket

Well I’m gonna go ahead and take a wild guess that Shrek is just like all the other movies of its kind…

Hero Nation Podcast: ‘What If?’ EP A.C. Bradley Teases Marvel Animated Series’ Season 2 + The Captain America & ‘West Wing’ Crossover That Never Happened

https://megaphone.link/PMC4624045801

This week’s episode might be my favourite yet. It starts from a pretty cool concept showing Ultron winning in Avengers 2, and then plays that out in an interesting way that goes to some unexpected places, with some great moments for the animation.

I enjoyed all the references – quite a few to Terminator, including some specific shots homaged, among others. And I like the shape that the later developments bring to this series as a whole and the more active role of the Watcher, suggesting some kind of multiversal team-up is in the offing.

Looking forward to what’s left of the series now. This is the first episode where I had a real feeling of disappointment when it ended, feeling like I’d only been watching for around 10 minutes and wishing there was more.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Wow using Thanos as a jobber… bad Marvel, bad!

Also, yeesh that voice acting for Ultron was pretty bad… If they were gonna change it, they should’ve gone for something more menacing.

On the bright side of things, the Kirby-esque battle suit for the watcher was neat… and it’s nice to see the stones used more classically… but speaking of stones, so which is it? are they useable in other universes or not? Man, they shouldn’t be having continuity snaffus like this at this point.

Jon wrote:

On the bright side of things, the Kirby-esque battle suit for the watcher was neat… and it’s nice to see the stones used more classically… but speaking of stones, so which is it? are they useable in other universes or not? Man, they shouldn’t be having continuity snaffus like this at this point.

They were in Endgame, so why not here? Is it just the Loki series that says they’re not (for the purposes of that gag)?

Anyway, I think that the more developed and complex a shared universe gets, the more likely it is that you’re going to get these minor continuity glitches and contradictions. It didn’t detract from the episode for me – in fact it didn’t even occur to me until I saw someone mention it in a review.

Dave wrote:

This week’s episode might be my favourite yet. It starts from a pretty cool concept showing Ultron winning in Avengers 2, and then plays that out in an interesting way that goes to some unexpected places, with some great moments for the animation.

I enjoyed all the references – quite a few to Terminator, including some specific shots homaged, among others. And I like the shape that the later developments bring to this series as a whole and the more active role of the Watcher, suggesting some kind of multiversal team-up is in the offing.

Looking forward to what’s left of the series now. This is the first episode where I had a real feeling of disappointment when it ended, feeling like I’d only been watching for around 10 minutes and wishing there was more.

Yeah, I enjoyed it as an episode, but it’s one of those situations where it raises the stakes overall and that means that episodes after it need to go back down to just being the Watcher… watching an alternate universe. It feels like it’s a bit too early to break out the omnidimensional big bad as a thing.

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Todd, Dave

Maybe, but then I gather there’s actually only one episode left now of this first season (I had thought there were more) so I guess it was time to build up to the finale.

I agree though, if the show then has to revert to the same setup for season two it might feel like a step backwards.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Dave wrote:

They were in Endgame, so why not here? Is it just the Loki series that says they’re not (for the purposes of that gag)?

I dunno… I mean, in the Loki show they are in a pocket dimension type of deal, I assume, so that might be why they don’t work there, beyond the gags… but who knows at this point

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Rocket

I enjoyed that. They definitely did some stuff that is only feasible in animation, such as the impressive Watcher v Ultron fight. It suffered a bit for not having James Spader back as Ultron, but it was good.

I assume there’s only one episode left and it’s the much-rumoured multiversal team-up one, but it would be fun to see a normal episode with Ultron narrating it instead of the Watcher (though presumably just deciding to wade in and kill everyone at the end),

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Dave, lorcan_nagle

[Al-x]

Ok….

90 seconds is a long time in that animation. (Reminds me of my plank time)
Thanos went down way too fast
What about the Eternals?

Watcher… you idiot! Why didn’t you turn it off BEFORE he noticed you?

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Al-x.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Al-x.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Al-x.

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Uncle Retrospective

I enjoyed the finale. There were definite Exiles influences in there, along with a dash of Avengers Forever. I’m assuming Gamora came from an episode that got cut though, because that was a little odd that she appeared with zero set-up whereas everything else linked back into the rest of the series. But it was good.

Tough to see how they could do a second series though, having already done a story arc about the Watcher breaking his oath. You can’t really do that again and I don’t think they could get away with just an anthology series now.

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lorcan_nagle

Yeah, I liked the finale. A nice Avengers-style team-up with high stakes, lots of decent action, and the kind of visual imagination I wish we saw more of in the movies.

I definitely think a second season could work, though. All you need is more good individual episode ideas and (if the structure demands it) another reason for a big crossover at the end, or even along the way.

This has probably been my favourite MCU tv show of all the Disney+ efforts so far.

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lorcan_nagle

I’m pretty much in the same wheelhouse here. I have concerns about them trying to top this finale next series and it just becoming a series of escalating stakes, but that final 2-parter was highly enjoyable in and of itself.

Next series they need an alternate version of the Watcher to really shake things up.

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lorcan_nagle

Is there an Uatu in each universe?

Oh, one thing that occurred to me: it’s odd that none of the stories used Quicksilver in any way. Even if they couldn’t get Aaron Taylor-Johnson back to voice him, they could have used a sound-a-like, as they did for so many others. You’d think a guy who got killed off so quickly would be an appealing choice for a series not bound by continuity.

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lorcan_nagle

Meh, it was fine, nothing too earth-shattering… I do love me some Doc Strange though, and specially when he’s OP… I did enjoy that much…  man, I hope the movie is good… it’s about the only marvel movie I’m looking forward to.

Also, eh, I won’t be too broken-hearted if they drop this series… but if they continue it I hope it’s better next time around… there’s a lot of potential in such a thing, but it feels half-assed at best.

It was Ok but we have seen all the stunts, the fights, the energy light show, and so on.

I am reminded a little of the old Sliders show, a show that had so much potential of traveling to alternate worlds that it bit off way more than it could chew… It’s almost the same here.

Anyway…

NEXT: HAWKEYE

Dave wrote:

Next series they need an alternate version of the Watcher to really shake things up.

Maybe someone like Aron the Rogue Watcher?

I enjoyed it. It was a fun series that really came together in the end.

I hope Disney does more animated series. Each one would have its own visual style and aesthetic.

I never did care for vs.
but this one piqued my interest and maybe yours:

There Were Plans for a What If…? Spinoff Series for Star-Lord T’Challa and Damn That Would’ve Been So Much Fun

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Todd, Rocket

Watched the finale to what has been the strongest TV series by far.  Each ep worked well on its own then this finale linked them up very smartly.

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Uncle Retrospective, Rocket, njerry, Dave

Season 2!

Doing one a day over Christmas does feel legitimately like a festive event, but also like a burn-off made necessary by the knock on delays from Secret Invasion. Like they want it out of the way before X-Men 97.

First episode was ok. Visually lovely but a full half hour of Gillan’s dour Nebula voice as lead is a bit wearing.

I didn’t realise Serafinowicz’s character from GotG was meant to be Super Nova/Garthan Saal (or used his name at least) nor that Glenn Close’s Nova Prime had the name of Irani from DnA’s Nova.

I’m curious as to whether they’ll do a season arc this year. Trickier to do not least because they’ve got that hold over episode that was part of last season’s arc.

Episode 2 was a lot of fun. I never would have thought of making some of the key character connections it did. And an impressive level of cast retention from live action too.

Enjoyed the first episode. The animation seemed a lot better and the overall pacing and framing of scenes looked a lot more cinematic and it at least seems to wear its Blade Runner inspiration on its sleeve.

I’ve never really got what they were trying to do with Nebulas voice in the movies, I’ve always found it kind of distraction and a weird choice, but it works here and fits the noir mood.

Episode 3 was a delight!

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Todd

Sam Rockwell was hilarious!!!

Episode 4 is the s1 holdover and was ok. Some nice direction and Goldblum was great but it lost me somewhat during the second bit of Wacky Races. Weird that Gamora was the character taken from that for the s1 cross-over.

Episode 5 didn’t do much for me. Again, some really nice direction and action, but it requires you to care about the fate of that universe’s Steve, which is a big ask in an any anthology really. Peggy? Sure. Pseudo-Winter Soldier Steve Rogers? Not so much. I guess we are getting another season arc though, I just hope it’s not 1602 based. I hate 1602.

I wonder what the production timeline was on this series, because it so far hasn’t engaged with any concepts from anything later than Black Widow, I think. I wonder if we’ll get anything with the Eternals, Shang Chi, Moon Knight, Ms Marvel, Daredevil etc.

Martin Smith wrote:

I wonder what the production timeline was on this series, because it so far hasn’t engaged with any concepts from anything later than Black Widow, I think. I wonder if we’ll get anything with the Eternals, Shang Chi, Moon Knight, Ms Marvel, Daredevil etc.

According to this, it was mostly written during lockdown in 2020, so before any of the TV series were even filmed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_If…%3F_(season_2)#Writing

Writing for the season’s episodes took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the story arcs conceived during brainstorming sessions in 2019. Because of the long-lead production for animation, there was not an opportunity for audience reactions to the first season to impact the creatives’ work on the second season. Some of the ideas for the first season were carried over to the second, which will once again occur for the third season.[16] Writing for all of the season’s episodes was completed by October 2021.

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Martin Smith

Martin Smith wrote:

I wonder if we’ll get anything with the Eternals, Shang Chi, Moon Knight, Ms Marvel, Daredevil etc.

Episode 7 is “What If… Hela Found the Ten Rings?”

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Martin Smith

Episode 6 was great. Completely unexpected and different from everything else. Really utilising the strengths of both the anthology format and multiverse setting to tell a story that couldn’t otherwise be done.

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Todd, Martin Smith

I quite liked season 2 over all. It always surprises me when they get people like Michael Douglas and Cate Blanchett to reprise their character (while the likes of Pratt and Larson are absent) and they were clever in how they used Blanchett here. It feels like they’re tailoring around who they can get back, beyond the Cap, Iron Man and Widow, who they’d not be able to get away with not using, I guess. And making Captain Carter essentially a main character is smart. Looking forward to season 3.

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lorcan_nagle, Todd

Season started off well but I don’t get the Captain Carter thing at all. It was an okay idea for season 1, But to then dedicate another 3 episodes to her here as well was not what I was after from the show. I think it’s stronger when it’s doing stand alone stories and not trying to do arcs.

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Todd

Saw the first three episodes and thought they were fine. Not the strongest writing compared to season 1, but very well made for sure, and some neat ideas for the scenarios.