Disney+ - What If... ? Our review of the first three episodes

By Mulder, 10 august 2021

The series What If ... ? explores what would happen if major moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies happened differently. The series is produced by Marvel Studios.  Jeffrey Wright is the original voice of the Watcher, who narrates the series.  Marvel Studios' head of visual development, Ryan Meinerding, helped define the cel-shaded animation style of the series, which was designed to mirror the films. Animation for the first season is being handled by Squeeze and Flying Bark Productions, with Stephan Franck as head of animation. At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019, Feige revealed a list of actors reprising their character's voices in the series: Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger, Sebastian Stan as James Bucky Barnes, Josh Brolin as Thanos, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton, Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, Neal McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan, Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, Sean Gunn: Kraglin Obfonteri, Natalie Portman: Jane Foster, David Dastmalchian: Kurt, Stanley Tucci: Abraham Erskine, Taika Waititi: Korg, Toby Jones: Arnim Zola, Djimon Hounsou: Korath the Pursuer, Jeff Goldblum: The Grandmaster, Michael Rooker: Yondu Udonta, and Chris Sullivan: Taserface. 

We had the chance to discover the first three episodes of the highly anticipated first season of What if and were completely won over. If this What if series is so important to us, it's because we grew up reading many Marvel comics and one series in particular has remained as the most important and successful of this publisher and that is What if. This anthology series published by Marvel Comics has as main idea to revisit the Marvel universe as we know it and more precisely how this one could have unfolded if key moments of its history had not happened as they did in the main continuity. Launched in 1977, this comic book series knows 13 volumes and has remained in the hearts of comic book readers as one of the best developed by Marvel Comics. It was obvious that sooner or later this series was going to give rise to an adaptation and what better way to faithfully retranscribe this series than to adapt it in the form of an animated series where each episode tells a complete story and above all revisits one of the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As soon as the credits roll, the scene is set and we find, as in the comics, the character of Uatu (The Watcher) who takes up the plot of the events told in the Marvel cinematographic universe to introduce a point of divergence in these events and the description of the consequences of this divergence. 

The first episode cleverly revisits the movie Captain America: First Avenger (2011) and shows what could have happened if the experimental program to turn Steve Rogers into a super-soldier had not gone as planned and Peggy Carter had been injected with the serum instead to become a super-hero capable of standing up to Red Crane (Redskull) and confronting numerous German soldiers both on land and in the air. This first episode is a perfect illustration of what a visual transcription of a comic book should be. The action scenes are very efficient, the tempo is perfect, the humor is great and the visuals are great. Even if the plot of this episode takes some highlights from the movie Captain America: First Avenger (2011) it incorporates a new character, The Hydra Stomper (a kind of first Iron Man with Steve Rogers in place of Tony Stark). We must admit that this first episode is a total success as it shows what a Marvel adaptation should be in series or simply in movies. It is also frustrating because it shows that Captain America: First Avenger (2011) could have been an instant classic if it had used many of the ideas present here.

The success of this first episode could have worried us a bit if the second part had not had the same visual strength and level of originality. However, this one is once again an obvious success and cleverly revisits the first two parts of the film saga Guardians of the Galaxy with the idea that it is not the young Peter Jason Quill who is kidnapped by the Ravagers and is raised by Yondu but the young T'Challa (future Black Panther). Star Lord thus has a new face did not form a new team with Rocket, Groot, Drax the Destroyer and Gamora. The characters of the universe of the Guardians of the Galaxy are revisited with a certain irony including the alternative version of Thanos and Howard the Duck. This episode is also very emotional, especially in the original version with the voice of Chadwick Boseman.

The third episode revisits several movies. We find an important scene from the movie Thor (2011), but also from The Incredible Hulk and the movie Iron Man 2 (2010). This time this episode starts from the premise that the future members of the Avengers die one after the other following a revenge of a character from another Marvel movie. Again, we take a real pleasure to discover this episode and we wait with a real impatience for the other episodes to come. We can recognize that Hasbro is launching in the United States in pre-order in its Marvel Legends line of many figurines, from the same Hot Toys also offers in pre-order a Spiderman zombie hunter.

The animated series What If... ? will start on Disney+ tomorrow and will be composed of 10 episodes, released weekly. It will be part of phase four of the MCU.  A second season will also consist of 10 episodes.

Synopsis:
Exploring key moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and turning the tables, taking audiences into uncharted territory.

What If...?
Created by A.C. Bradley
Based on What If...? by Marvel Comics
Directed by Bryan Andrews
Starring : Chadwick Boseman, Chris Hemsworth], Chris Sullivan, David Dastmalchian, Djimon Hounsou , Dominic Cooper, Frank Grillo , Hayley Atwell], Jeff Goldblum, Jeffrey Wright, Jeremy Renner , Josh Brolin, Karen Gillan, Mark Ruffalo , Michael B. Jordan , Michael Douglas, Michael Rooker , Natalie Portman , Neal McDonough , Paul Rudd ,, Samuel L. Jackson , Sean Gunn, Sebastian Stan , Stanley Tucci , Taika Waititi ,Toby Jones , Tom Hiddleston
Composer : Laura Karpman
Executive producers : Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum
Animator : Stephan Franck
Production companies : Marvel Studios, Squeeze, Flying Bark Productions
Distributor : Disney Platform Distribution
Original network : Disney+

(Source : press release)