Marvel's What If? Explained | Breakdown Of Everything We Know

If like me you’re still reeling from the Phase 4 announcement panel then you’re in for a treat.

Marvel has released a whole host of details about their upcoming spin-off series What If? and throughout this, I’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about the shows cast, release date and giving my thoughts on what we could see in it.

There will be heavy spoilers here so if you don’t want to know anything about the upcoming series then I highly suggest that you turn off now.

With that out the way I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this video now let’s get into my breakdown of Marvel’s What If.

What If? Explained

Firstly I thought I’d just give a brief overview of the What If? series and discuss what exactly it is. Those who are fans of Marvel Comics will be familiar with the aesthetic and there have been countless What If? graphic novels released over the companies long and rich publishing history.

The series takes a key moment in Marvel history and subverts it slightly to show what the outcome could have been like for the arc had it gone another way. My favorite example of this is in the Civil War storyline in which Captain America and Iron-Man actually form a truce and thus Cap is never killed yada yada yada. They’re not all happy endings though and in the case of Avengers VS X-Men sometimes these turns aren’t necessarily for the best.

It’s a safe assumption to make then that the series will focus on key events in the MCU and show what could have happened in an alternate timeline. The show will be narrated by Jeffrey Wright who is making his MCU debut as the Watcher and he will be taking us from location to location and demonstrating how even the most minor change can have huge consequences.

Peggy Carter Is Captain America

The first scenario that we have confirmed is the Peggy Carter spin-off which involves Cap’s old flame taking the super-soldier serum instead of the Star-Spangled Man with a plan. Disney has done an incredible job of reuniting the cast once more and this star-studded lineup is probably worth going back in time for.

Featuring the voices of Haley Attwell, Dominic Cooper, Stanley Toochie, Neal McDonough, Sebastian Stan and Toby Jones it looks like this piece will be set predominantly in World War Two and show Peggy going head to head with Hydra again. With Bucky, Howard Stark and The Howling Commandos at her side I can see this playing out a lot differently with her probably not going into the ice at the end and therefore not being around to help out the Avengers further down the line. Bucky probably won’t become The Winter Soldier and there’s a whole host of potential to massively alter the universe especially because this was it’s starting block.

The most interesting bit about this line up is that Chris Evans is nowhere to be mentioned and it’s crazy to think how different that the MCU would be if Stanley Tucci’s character had not staved him at the recruitment office.

Overall I’m really looking forward to this and I think it’s an inspired choice that the show is going back to square one to show us all the different possibilities that could be ahead. If you’re a fan of the Agent Carter TV show then you know that Peggy packs a punch already and this could be an amazing elseworld story to tell.

The Guardians

The next scenario I think will be very heavily focused on the Guardians timeline and it could even tie into Endgame. There’s a big moment in that movie where Rhodey knocks out Peter Quill and thus creates an alternate timeline in which he would never get the Power Stone and thus the Guardians would never be formed and Ronin would probably go on to become that Universe’s Thanos.

Looking at the cast list which is made up of Thanos, Nebula, Korath, Taserface and Yondu it appears that this spin-off could even display what would’ve happened if Quill had never betrayed Yondu and he had handed over the Powerstone straight away to the Mad Titan, this would have meant that the snap would’ve happened a lot sooner, probably at a time when the Avengers were ill-equipped to deal with Thanos and there’s a wealth of potential here. I mean who doesn’t wanna see the big purple Grimace looking guy return to Marvel?

I know I definitely do and it could make this spin-off incredible.

Black Panther

We are also getting the return of Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan who of course went head to head in Black Panther. What If? stories tend to show what would have happened had the losing side won and I can definitely see this playing out with Kilmonger as the victor and having the forces of Wakanda take over the world instead of hiding in the shadows.

It’s definitely going to be an interesting choice and may even have the Avengers going head to head with Kilmonger to bring an end to his reign of terror which yeah, will be great, especially if Tony doesn’t have access to nanotechnology.

Thor Scenario

The next What If Story, judging by the cast list, will probably change up the events of Thor Ragnarok and it’s refreshing to see Mark Ruffalo, Jeff Goldblum, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Taika Watiti and Chris Hemsworth in the lineup.

So what could this be about? Well it’s difficult to say but I think that we could actually get an all out version of Planet Hulk with the big green giant maybe killing Thor in their face off and then going on to take over the planet similar to the graphic novel. Korg was a big part of that so it’s nice to see that he’s making a return too.

The absence of Thor could make Loki seek out Jane Foster and we could see her becoming the new God Of Thunder faster than we thought with this new change in dynamics.

There’s a lot of potential here and I’m really excited to see the return of the grandmaster.

The New Avengers

The final scenario looks like it’s going to be focusing an Avengers team-up without all the necessary big names. We have Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, Samuel L. Jackson, and Michael Douglas returning and due to this cast, I actually think it will take place just after Civil War with potential Cap and Iron-Man killing one another in their battle at the end of the film.

This would force Fury to scramble together the last of the heroes and as all of these were absent in Infinity War this episode could center around what would have happened if they’d went head to head with Thanos.

What If? Release Date

What If? is due to drop in the summer of 2021 and I’m massively hyped for it. This looks like an amazing show and I can’t wait to see what other potential timelines it explores.