Mid-Season Predictions: WHAT IF…? – The Beat

[adrotate group=”10″]

It’s mid-season predictions time! We are officially halfway through What if…?, and much like we did with Loki, it’s time to talk theories, predictions, hopes, and conspiracies we have for this season. Taimur Dar, Avery Kaplan, and I discuss predictions for the back half of What If…? and, given the nature of the series, we’ve decided to add a couple of what if scenarios of our own.

Who do you think is the first character we’ll see from these episodes go into the MCU live-action?

Therese: I think people could make an easy case for Captain Carter, given the fact that she will be returning to the series in Season 2, but I personally want to see Strange Supreme teaming up with Wanda post-Wandavision with the Darkhold. I think he’s a man who has nothing to lose and the combined powers of Strange Supreme and Wanda Maximoff is honestly the villain duo I want for Multiverse of Madness. They wouldn’t even need to cast anyone new!

Avery: They can even bond over their lost lovers! Perfect.

Taimur: You two pretty much hit the nail on the head. Captain Carter and Strange Supreme are really the only ones I can picture in live-action. I’m going to cheat a bit and say Uatu the Watcher, played by Jeffrey Wright. We technically did see other Watchers in Guardians of the Valley Vol. 2 but not necessarily Uatu specifically.

Therese: I think Jeffrey Wright would be a great addition! It feels inevitable after that Strange Supreme episode that we will see him intervening so that could likely be the bridge that brings him into the MCU live-action.

Do you think these episodes will remain separate or will we start seeing more of a serialized story appear?

Therese: I personally hope that these stories stay bottle episodes. I realize that a LOT of people want some kind of connective thread, but I like every episode being its own little world, some being one-shots, others being incorporated more into the MCU as the multiverse expands.

Taimur: The big appeal of What If…?, for me, is the evergreen nature of the series so you don’t have to feel obligated to watch every episode immediately when it drops the same day. I definitely do feel like the show has been seeding hints of connectivity between the stories aside from the ever-present Watcher. The tentacled Cthulhu-inspired interdimensional creature I wouldn’t be surprised if it made a comeback.

Therese: That’s what I actually fear when it comes to the MCU. Every person I’ve spoken to about this series is under the impression that we’ll be seeing a lot of these multiverse characters again, and I think that the audience pressure might pull these characters who should be one-shots into a larger serialized story. I hope not, but they used to have the catchphrase “it’s all connected”.

Avery: I hear all of your concerns but I am also a huge fan of Exiles, which sees the Watcher creating an interdimensional team. The most recent run of Exiles even features a team that includes a certain character we’ve seen on the show! And the Marvel Zombies storyline is interdimensional in the comics, I can’t imagine we won’t see the same here.

Taimur: Zombie Thanos!

How likely do you think we’ll see the appearance of more recent, newly introduced Disney+ characters like Agatha, or the TVA Minutemen, or Isaiah Bradley in these episodes?

Therese: I already know Avery wants to see Agatha again, but given how recent these series debuted, I don’t know how likely we will be to see them. However, we know the TVA still exists in one form or another. I wouldn’t mind seeing Hunter B-15 or maybe even see Sylvie pop up in an episode that features Loki.

Taimur: As you said, it’s very doubtful we’ll see more recent MCU characters this season. That said though, knowing that What If…? is getting a second season, they’d be fools not to do stories utilizing characters and concepts introduced in the Disney+ MCU original shows. It didn’t occur to me until you suggested it, but the animation is a great way to show Isaiah Bradley’s origin with the great Carl Lumbly voicing him.

Therese: I think much like that most recent Killmonger episode, the show can be a vehicle to show a possible version of a character while also building on a character’s development. We never knew about the more techy side of Erik until this What If…? episode and I think that they could do that with multiple characters who haven’t had the opportunity to expand as much. I’m all for digging into the side characters.

Avery: I love the idea of further developing the side characters. I mean, one of the What If…? comics had Aunt May taking on the role of the Silver Surfer. Show me someone who doesn’t want to see Marisa Tomei cruising out in front of Galactus and I’ll show you a liar!

As Therese said, I am going nuts waiting to see more Agatha Harkness. “What if she got the Scarlet Witch’s Chaos Magic?” A gal can dream…

Taimur: Totally agree about the potential to develop some of MCU side characters that perhaps didn’t make a huge impact when they first appeared. My favorite thus far is how they made Korath this huge fanboy of T’Challa in the second episode. It definitely made him more memorable than he was in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film or Captain Marvel. Hats off if the show creators attempt a new take on Whiplash or Malekith.

Therese: We stan Korath! Any opportunity to see Djimon Hounsou in a lighter role that isn’t just stoic is my dream. But also, give me a world where Whiplash just raises a bunch of birds like Juan Diego Botto’s General Luna in The Suicide Squad. (I truly don’t even remember Malekith enough to come up with an AU Malekith.)

Which of the characters in What If…? so far do you want to see again, if you could? Either in live-action or in another animated episode.

Therese: If we could, I would be desperate for T’Challa Star-Lord in live-action, but since that’s not possible, I wouldn’t mind seeing him again in animated form. Honestly, give me the entire series of T’Challa, Nebula, Thanos, Korath, Taserface, and Yondu flying around the galaxy helping people and eventually taking on Ego and Peter. Aside from that, I think it would be great if some big bad actually collected all the villains of the What If episodes and formed some kind of insane rogue’s gallery with them.

Avery: I would have watched a whole series about T’Star-Lord, and it’s a shame we won’t see more of him. That being said, I have to agree with you, Therese: give me more of T’Challa’s Ravagers! I’m particularly interested in this version of Nebula, one of my favorite characters in any timeline, and her dysfunctional relationship with her once-genocidal father.

But the character I most want to see more of is Howard the Duck (Seth Green)! Give him a show, give him a guest role on She-Hulk, give him a trilogy of movies – any bill is worth it for more duck!

Taimur: Yup! Wholeheartedly agree with Avery about T’Challa’s Ravagers. I’ll say it again, I just want to see more of Korath and his obsessive friendship with T’Challa. Therese’s idea about a big bad collector now makes me realize after seeing The Collector (reprised Benicio Del Toro) as a serious physical threat, he’d make a great antagonist. I also now want to finally see Collector in the same room with his fellow Elder of the Universe The Grandmaster (played by Jeff Goldblum) and see the hilarity ensue.

Therese: Buff Collector bringing together the What If rogues gallery is my new dream. I want to see Shuma Gorath, Ego and Peter, Yellowjacket Hank Pym, Strange Supreme, Zombie Thanos, and Killmonger as Blank Panther all together in a team. Then again… that seems incredibly overpowered. But, hey, let’s throw in Grandmaster too!

Our What If Scenarios

“What If…Betty Ross Became the Hulk?”

Instead of Bruce Banner undergoing the gamma radiation experiment that transformed him into the Hulk, imagine his co-worker and girlfriend Betty Ross tested it on herself first.

The Incredible Hulk film from 2008  is the ugly stepchild of the MCU but Marvel Studios isn’t afraid to mine the continuity it’s established. We saw What If…? revisit the Incredible Hulk film in season one, so I’d love to see some of the film’s supporting characters appear again like Ty Burrell as Leonard Samson or Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns. Most especially Liv Tyler as Betty Ross because both the actress and the character don’t deserve to be written out completely from the MCU. Other characters becoming the Hulk or gamma monsters has been done to death in the comics, but aside from Hulk, Abomination, and the upcoming She-Hulk series we’ve never really seen that many gamma-powered characters in the MCU. — Taimur Dar

“What If… Sylvie had accepted the offer from He Who Remains?”

At the conclusion of the first season finale of Loki, Sylvie (Sylvia di Martino) knocked Our Loki Variant (Tom Hiddleston) through a portal and dispatched He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), rejecting his offer to take over as co-Time-Keepers and enforce their own version of the Scared Timeline. But what if… Sylvie had accepted the offer? So often an authoritarian figurehead is overthrown only for the old boss to be replaced with a new boss who proves equally draconian. I’m curious if Sylvie would have become an all-new, all-different Timeline Fascist or if she could have taken the powers associated with He Who Remains’s office and turned them to good! — Avery Kaplan

“What If… Hela Remained in Asgard?”

Instead of imprisoning Hela in Hel after Odin has a change of heart in conquering, imagine if Odin took a less extreme path.

I really enjoyed the episode of T’Challa as Star-Lord and one of the main things I loved so much about it was turning Thanos from a supervillain to a fun dad with questionable politics. Hela is one of my favorite characters, and Cate Blanchett plays her superbly, but I would love to see the version of Hela where she’s the goth older sister to Thor and Loki. Let’s be honest, Odin will never win any father of the year awards, but I think him imprisoning his firstborn after molding her into the killer he wanted was one of his worst moves. Give me the version of the world where Hela is an anti-hero. — Therese Lacson

“What If… the MCU creators were in front of the camera?”

This one is shamefully ripping off that What If…? #11 (1978): “What if the original Marvel bullpen became the Fantastic Four?” In this issue, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Sol Brodsky, and Flo Steinberg become Marvel’s titular first superhero team! The story is funny and silly, which is a tone that I wish we would see a little bit more of on the Disney+ show (I’m all for some bleak What If…?s as well, but I like them to be mixed in with some weird ones). In the MCU version, we’d obviously see Head Boss In Charge Kevin Feige as either Nick Fury or Professor X, Jon Favreau as Tony Stark (and Robert Downey, Jr as Happy, just for kicks), and Jac Schaeffer as Agatha Harkness. I guess Taika Waititi would still be Korg, though! — Avery Kaplan

“What If…Loki Survived”

Instead of perishing at the hands of Thanos, imagine if Loki cast a projection of himself so effectively that even the Mad Titan was convinced.

This is a bit of a cheat because this is literally Classic Loki’s origin as revealed in the amazing “Journey into Mystery” episode of Loki. I wasn’t aware that this was a long-held fan theory after Infinity War. Classic Loki doesn’t go into too much detail about his life after escaping Thanos only mentioning that wherever he went pain followed before he exiled himself. It’s an origin I’d love to see delved deeper if only to get Richard E. Grant to once again perform the character and see that costume on screen once more! — Taimur Dar

“What if… Wenwu Was Home?”

Instead of being out when his home was being attacked by foes, imagine if Wenwu had saved his wife and never put the ten rings back on.

It might be a little recency bias or my love of Tony Leung, but I want the version of Shang-Chi where Wenwu doesn’t put his rings back on, where he doesn’t lose the love of his life, where he doesn’t become a distant father and the head of a terrorist organization. Obviously this would massively change the MCU, given that Tony Stark likely might not have been attacked by the Ten Rings (but I’m sure Obadiah would have found a replacement). But I’m not really interested in Tony Stark, I’m interested in exploring Wenwu as a father and the Xu family in general. What would Shang-Chi’s life have been like if his father’s heart hadn’t hardened? Would he have inherited the Ten Rings naturally with time? — Therese Lacson

“What if… No More Avengers?”

Instead of turning the small town of Westview, NJ into her own world, imagine if Wanda Maximoff decided that the universe is better off without superheroes.

We’re all familiar with the House of M run that led Wanda Maximoff to say, “no more mutants.” Given that we are not yet in an MCU world where we can even utter the word mutants, I think it would be interesting to see the results of a world where Wanda says “no more avengers” instead. What are the specifics of this world? I don’t know, but given Wanda’s surmounting power within this universe, I think it would be an effective tool in temporarily wiping out the heroes and allowing their backups to come into the spotlight to defeat her and restore the world. — Therese Lacson

“What If… Wanda had decided not to cancel her show?”

At the conclusion of the first (and perhaps only) season of WandaVision, Wanda “cancels” her show, and the reality-warping sitcom being broadcast from Westview, New Jersey abruptly ends. But what if… Wanda had decided not to cancel her show? How would they deal with the aging (or non-aging) twins? What happens when we reach later seasons – Vision takes up water skiing and jumps over Jeff the Land Shark? How about a crossover episode with one of the less metafictional MCU shows? What if one of the Westview residents managed to escape the Hex? There’s a reason we’re all still talking about WandaVision: there’s just too much potential to leave it at one season, and maybe a What If…? could burn some of that unutilized narrative off! — Avery Kaplan

“What If…Peter Parker Joined the Avengers?”

Instead of passing Tony Stark’s “test,” imagine if Peter Park decided to take him up on his offer and became the newest member of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

It’s not hard to find moments in the MCU where characters are presented at a crossroads and see them go down a different path. I’m sure we all remember the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming when Tony’s original plan to announce Spider-Man as the newest Avengers to a room full of reporters hilariously fell through and he ended up proposing to Pepper Potts. I think seeing what would happen if Peter decided to go through those doors instead of waiting in the car opens up tremendous possibilities. It’s also a great way to supporting the cast of characters in those two MCU Spidey films, particularly the Midtown School faculty like J. B. Smoove or Martin Starr. — Taimur Dar

What If…? streams Wednesdays on Disney+!

Related

[adrotate group=”10″]