Yahoo News ‘What If…?’ Is the Only Project Delivering on Marvel’s Multiverse Promise
Years ago, there was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people leading blockbuster movies, to unite them onscreen and eventually crack open their universe with new worlds and realities. It was an idea called the multiverse, and though it persists, it hasn’t panned out quite as expected — except with Marvel Studios’ “What If…?”
Written by A.C. Bradley and directed by Bryan Andrews, the animated anthology series takes familiar Marvel characters and comic book breakouts and sets them on brand-new adventures, set in parallel universes where the events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are immaterial. On “What If…?” it doesn’t matter if a plot line fits into the MCU canon, if a character behaves according to specific events they experienced in the movies, or even whether they have the same powers and origin story. Like comic books themselves, the episodes of “What If…?” offer built-in resets to keep stories fresh.
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Uninhibited by the logistics and budgeting of live-action, “What If…?,” which returned for a second season starting December 22, is an irresistible taste of what the multiverse could and should be — and a reminder of how gravely the MCU’s live-action version falls short. It takes years of planning and foresight to execute something so grand in scale, but Marvel’s official timeline puts us halfway through the alleged Multiverse Saga, with most films still teasing a future that doesn’t feel any closer than it was at the start.
The multiverse was introduced into the live-action MCU with a “WandaVision” fake-out, then in earnest and in “Loki” Season 1 and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — the former of which had to lay expository framework while the latter relied on sorcerers rather than timey-wimey minutiae to deliver Spider-Man fan service. Further out still there was the promise of Fantastic Four and X-Men, who are finally on their way thanks to strategic business deals years in the making.
The MCU’s Earth-616 is still home base to millions of viewers worldwide. Introducing the multiverse doesn’t mean uprooting years of existing storytelling, but it does mean finding freedom within the meticulous Marvel framework. The average “What If…?” episode would make an entertaining standalone film, but are those realistically worth the bottom line for Marvel Studios? If anything, they could make for more live-action Disney+ gambles, like 2022’s delightful “Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” (set in the main timeline, but still a treat). There’s also opportunity here for Marvel to venture into animated features — a lucrative bet, if you ask Sony.
So why introduce the Multiverse in the first place? If it’s going to be too expansive, too expensive, if it isn’t worth investing in standalone scripts or short-term acting contracts so that fans and characters get to play in unfamiliar corners of the MCU? It could all be part of an even bigger picture, or laying the foundation for whatever follows the Multiverse Saga (that’s Phase 7, for those keeping track), or Marvel’s future beyond movies.
Still, a promise is a promise. Marvel Studios may have turned into a money machine, but executives at the top still care about fans and storytelling and their comic book roots. If there was an idea to create a multiverse — let alone a multiverse saga — that can’t be haphazard, and the timeline (in our world, not the MCU) means that fulfillment could still be on the horizon. Imagine a universe where it all comes together, where the destination was worth the journey. What if?
“What If…?” Season 2 is streaming on Disney+.
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