What If...? (TV series)
What If...? is an American animated anthology television series created by A. C. Bradley for the streaming service Disney+ based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name. It is the fourth television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from Marvel Studios, the first animated series from the studio, and the first series produced by Marvel Studios Animation. The series explores alternate timelines in the multiverse that show what would happen if major moments from the MCU films occurred differently. Bradley served as head writer for the first two seasons, with Matthew Chauncey taking over for the third, and Bryan Andrews as the lead director.
Jeffrey Wright stars as the Watcher, who narrates the series, alongside many MCU film actors reprising their roles. Marvel Studios was developing the series for Disney+ by the end of 2018, with Bradley and Andrews on board. It was officially announced in April 2019. Marvel Studios' head of visual development Ryan Meinerding helped define the series' cel-shaded animation style, which was designed to reflect the films and take inspiration from classic American illustrators. Animation for the series was provided by Flying Bark Productions and Stellar Creative Lab, with Blue Spirit and Squeeze also working on the first season and SDFX Studios working on the second. Stephan Franck was head of animation for the first season and a director on the second and third seasons, with Scott Wright as head of animation for the second and third seasons. Chauncey was the series' story editor before replacing Bradley as head writer.
The first season of What If...? premiered on August 11, 2021, and ran for nine episodes until October 6, as part of Phase Four of the MCU. The second season was released daily from December 22 to 30, 2023, and the third and final season premiered on December 22, 2024, also released daily; both are part of Phase Five. The series has received generally positive reviews, with praise for the voice acting, animation, creative storylines, and scenarios, although the episodes' length and writing received some criticism. An interactive augmented and virtual reality story for the Apple Vision Pro headset, What If...? – An Immersive Story, was released in May 2024, and a spin-off series titled Marvel Zombies premiered in September 2025.
Premise
Following the establishment of the multiverse in the first-season finale of Loki, What If...? explores various alternate timelines across the multiverse in which major moments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe films occur differently, as observed by the Watcher. In the second season, following the formation of the Guardians of the Multiverse, the Watcher continues to explore more strange worlds, meeting new heroes and keeping the multiverse safe.Episodes
Season 1 (2021)
Season 2 (2023)
Season 3 (2024)
Cast and characters
The series is narrated by Jeffrey Wright as the Watcher, a member of the alien Watcher race who observes the multiverse, in a similar role to Rod Serling's in The Twilight Zone. Head writer A. C. Bradley said the character is "above everything else" and compared him to a viewer of the "pizza rat" video, observing and not interfering as he has "no interest in becoming friends with the rat, living amongst the rat, or doing rat things... That is the Watcher's relationship with humanity." Executive producer Brad Winderbaum felt Wright's performance inspired a sense of humanity to the character, and Bradley explained that Wright was cast because his voice mixes power, charisma, and authority with a "warm personality". Wright approached the character like he would a live-action role, learning as much as he could about the Watcher so his voice could reflect the character's "uniquely powerful, all-seeing, sagely presence". Wright chose a contemporary American accent rather than having the character sound like "some Oxford-educated, old, fusty guy in a tudor parlor somewhere", and aside from researching the character's comic book appearances, took inspiration from the series' tone, visuals, and animation when developing the character's voice.For the second season, Wright was able to see how his performance played with animation for the first-season episodes, allowing him to make some adjustments to his performance such as adding "a bit more mystery to the voice and a bit more distance" to further the notion that the Watcher is "not entirely present". The third season further explores the character's humanity, with Winderbaum calling it a "fulfilling culmination" for the character, and saying the Watcher "presents himself as uncaring, and cold, and just an observer, but he cares more than everybody". The comic book name "Uatu" is not used at the start of the series because this would imply that there was more than one being watching the series' events when Bradley instead wanted to focus on the narrative of "the Watcher" observing the different characters and realities and how those affect him. The third season introduces additional members of the Watcher race–the Eminence, the Incarnate, and the Executioner–and reveals Wright's Watcher is named Uatu.
More than 50 actors reprise their MCU film roles in the first season, while over 30 reprise their roles in the second season, and over 35 reprise their roles in the third.
Production
Development
By September 2018, Marvel Studios was developing several series for its parent company Disney's streaming service, Disney+; Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was set to take a "hands-on role" in each series' development, focusing on "handling" the actors who would be reprising their roles from the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. One of these was an animated series for Disney+ based on the Marvel Comics run What If...?, which entered development in 2018. The anthology series, which would be produced by Feige, would explore how the MCU would be altered if certain events had occurred differently, such as if Loki wielded Thor's hammer Mjolnir. The hope was to have the actors who portray the characters in the MCU films voice them in the series as well. A. C. Bradley was suggested as head writer for the series by Marvel Studios executive Jonathan Schwartz after unsuccessfully pitching as a writer for Captain Marvel. Bradley was eager to write a Marvel film due to her love for the franchise, and felt What If...? was her opportunity to create many Marvel stories. Marvel Studios was impressed that some of Bradley's ideas for the series matched concepts they were planning for films, and she joined the project in October 2018. One of the concepts Marvel had devised that they asked Bradley to pitch on was what would happen if a 1980s Avengers team formed after a young Peter Quill came back to Earth; this concept would eventually be evolve into the second season episode, "What If... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes?". Bryan Andrews, a storyboard artist on many of the major action sequences from the MCU films, met with Brad Winderbaum—the Marvel Studios executive in charge of the series—about directing the series as early as 2018. Bradley and Andrews were officially announced in their roles in August 2019.In April 2019, Disney and Marvel officially announced the series. Marvel Studios had discussed adapting the What If...? comics in the past, but decided not to do so until after the conclusion of the Infinity Saga so they would have enough storylines to create alternate options of. Making the series animated allowed the studio to explore all of these ideas "unbounded". Winderbaum said it was not a coincidence that the series was set for release so soon after the first-season finale of Loki, which introduced the multiverse, since What If...? explores facets of the multiverse in a way that Winderbaum believed made the series as important as any other MCU property; Bradley confirmed that all episodes of the series are canon to the MCU multiverse, with most of the episodes taking place in their own universe. The creative team of What If...? met with Loki executive producers Stephen Broussard and Kevin R. Wright as well as WandaVision co-executive producer Mary Livanos to establish a "rule book" regarding the multiverse, its branch timelines, and nexus events.
The episodes are approximately 30 minutes in length, though Marvel Studios had originally told Bradley and Andrews to aim for 35 to 40-minute episodes; early production issues for the series resulted in the reduced run time. In December 2019, Feige revealed that the first season would consist of 10 episodes, and that work had already begun on a second 10-episode season. However, because of the production delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, an episode of the first season was not completed in time and was moved to the second season, bringing the first season to nine episodes; the second season was also reduced to nine episodes. Work on a third season began by July 2022, when Bradley revealed that the second season was her final project with Marvel Studios. Story editor Matthew Chauncey takes over as head writer for the third season, which was announced in August 2024 to be the series' last, and consists of eight episodes. A Red Guardian-centered episode written by Bradley that was intended for the second season was released in the third. Stephan Franck joined Andrews as director for the second and third seasons. In November 2024, Winderbaum explained that the series was ending due to "bigger reasons" that were being determined in real time as different projects were released within the Multiverse Saga. He said it was the right time for the series to conclude "from a story perspective", but did not rule out reviving it in the future.
Executive producers for the series include Winderbaum, Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Andrews, Bradley, and Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, with Carrie Wassenaar, Danielle Costa, and Alex Scharf producing. In July 2021, ahead of the release of What If...?, Alonso noted that Marvel Studios was creating an "animation branch and mini studio", known as Marvel Studios Animation, to focus on more animated content beyond What If...?. During Marvel Studios Animation's panel at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con, What If...? and the other projects discussed were introduced as being part of the "Marvel Animated Multiverse".