Marvel’s What If…? returns for its finall season, that includes the return of Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, and extra!
Plot: Marvel’s animated collection “What If…?” returns in Season 3 for its culminating journey by way of the multiverse. Watch as traditional characters make sudden selections that may mutate their worlds into spectacular alternate variations of the MCU. The Watcher will information viewers because the collection traverses new genres, greater spectacles, and unbelievable new characters. The collection options an unbelievable voice solid that features a host of stars who reprise their iconic roles.
Overview: When Marvel Studios introduced an animated anthology collection based mostly on the What If…? line of comedian books, the potential to discover totally different angles and twists on the identical storyline seen on the massive display screen was virtually too good to be true. The crux of the comedian guide is all the time the chance to see what would occur if a personality made an alternate alternative. Nonetheless, the MCU tackle What If…? facilities extra on the infinite potentialities of the multiverse and what may have occurred if all of the trajectories had been totally different. As an alternative of alternative, What If…? centered on how issues would unfold if characters had completely swapped locations or existed in numerous timelines. It makes for a enjoyable anthology format ending after too few seasons on the air. The third and closing quantity of What If…? debuts in the present day with seven extra episodes hitting Disney+ nightly by way of New 12 months’s Eve. It’s a enjoyable launch technique as this season of the collection packs some loopy stocking stuffers because it involves an finish.
Whereas a lot of the tales in What If…? are standalone threads within the bigger MCU multiverse, the second season pulled within the all-powerful Uatu the Watcher (Jeffrey Wright), a multiversal being charged with monitoring the occasions in each timeline. Linked to his choices to intervene with actions taken by Ultron within the first season after which Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell) within the second, Uatu finds himself in sizzling water with the opposite Watchers, notably The Eminence (Jason Isaacs). The third season does wrap with three chapters that straight tie up the storyline of Uatu and the Watchers, leaving the door open for future What If…? seasons down the road, however the first 5 entries on this third quantity are extra basic wackiness in exploring weird takes on the Marvel Cinematic Universe which are much less questions posed with the titular lead-in phrase however extra alternatives for the writers to see what the craziest concepts they might provide you with can be.
The season opens with a narrative about “What If…the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?”. Sure, there was a current comedian guide that checked out that actual concept. Nonetheless, the MCU model poses a brand new batch of Avengers led by Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) with Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), Xu Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Melina Vostakoff (Kari Wahlgren), and Nakia (Brittany Adebumola) as they face off towards a large monster model of the Hulk often called Apex inadvertently created by Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). The voice work is sweet, with so many live-action actors reprising their roles, and the size of the story is huge, however the idea of a Voltron or Energy Rangers crew of mechs is foolish sufficient to undermine the entire concept of why we love these heroes. The ending does redeem issues as we get some severe Hulk motion, however it’s an instance of the place What If…? has centered an excessive amount of on loopy concepts we might unlikely see in live-action fairly than the core level the comedian collection was meant for.
Lots of the episodes are enjoyable excursions into the multiverse, together with a team-up between Purple Guardian (David Harbour) and Winter Solider (Sebastian Stan) that provides each voice actors lots of enjoyable dialogue in addition to a foray right into a Nineteenth-century western led by Shang Chi and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), however others are odder selections. Two episodes take care of the Celestials as they appeared in Eternals and boast sequences that I can’t fathom being achieved in a live-action movie. Nonetheless, they really feel very disconnected from the characters audiences need to see. One episode facilities on Ironheart’s Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a personality we’ve not seen since her minor position in Black Panther: Wakanda Without end. Then there may be the mid-season chapter that focuses on Thor‘s Darcy (Kat Dennings) marrying Howard the Duck (Seth Green) and going on the run to protect their unborn child. That episode leads directly into introducing a brand new MCU superhero, Byrdie (Natasha Lyonne), who plays a key role in the end of The Watcher’s storyline.
The ultimate two episodes take care of the aftershocks of The Watcher’s actions within the second season. They’re the introduction of the X-Males character Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) into the MCU, however I can’t reveal every other particulars in regards to the ending right here. Evidently, head author Matthew Chauncey, alongside A.C. Bradley and Ryan Little, and administrators Bryan Andrews and Stephan Franck, craft a cohesive season that can’t assist however really feel a bit of underwhelming. What If…? has been one of many extra fashionable MCU initiatives because it premiered, and the choice to finish it after solely three seasons looks like an govt resolution made to give attention to the floundering characteristic movie slate. The reliance this collection has had on the Captain Carter storyline and constructing out The Watcher as a personality fairly than only a narrator has given us some nice moments with Hayley Atwell and Jeffrey Wright. Nonetheless, this season is anticlimactic, with the artistic crew concurrently engaged on the Marvel Zombies spin-off. I loved a lot of the tales this season however am left wanting extra from the under-utilized potential of this idea.
The third season of What If…? brings extra animated adventures that includes some main MCU characters whereas exploring others who haven’t gotten sufficient display screen time as of but. If this season proves something, it’s that Thunderbolts* goes to be improbable, because of David Harbour’s no-holds-barred strategy to enjoying Purple Guardian. It was good to see Dominic Cooper, James D’Arcy, Simu Liu, and different characters again after years away from their final appearances. Nonetheless, I ponder if that is the final season of What If…? as a result of Uatu is a significant presence within the Implausible 4 comics, and that crew has their film popping out very quickly. Regardless of the motive behind it, What If…? is once more a combined bag of intriguing tales and others that had been too ridiculous to not attempt to inform. The collection succeeds in being enjoyable, and that’s the greatest motive behind making a collection like this, even when it doesn’t fairly ship on what the supply materials was attempting to perform.
The ultimate season of What If…? debuts with a brand new episode every night time, for eight consecutive nights, starting December 22 on Disney+.
