TV Review: Marvel Studios' What If...?
Marvel’s What If…? is an uneven sandbox of curiosities
Spinning off from the adventures of Loki and the TVA, Marvel Studios’ What If…? explores the fractured branches of Phase Four’s next big thing: the Multiverse. Animated, self-contained episodes that ask the titular question, the series opens a cabinet full of possibilities, even if it feels a little inconsequential. With its journeys into entertaining parallel realities, What If…? is playful enough with its creativity and dazzling animation, but these half-hour jaunts feel more like curiosities than essential text. Three episodes watched for review, minor spoilers ahead…
The first issue of What If…? - “What If Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four” - debuted in 1977. Drawing upon fan knowledge and almost two decades worth of stories, the soon-to-be anthology series explored hypothetical divergences in Marvel Comics continuity, giving us brain-wrinkling twists such as “What If Gwen Stacy had Lived” or “Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe.” Flash forward to 2021, and it’s a clear testament to Marvel Studios’ meticulous world-building and far-reaching recognizability that it can even introduce its own version of What If…?, playfully detonating the universe established over 24 films. It’s a rare opportunity for the biggest franchise in the world to jettison the status quo without actually upsetting its delicate balance.
The new animated Disney Plus series finds itself in the wake of Loki’s season finale, which saw the birth of the Marvel Multiverse proper. Like its namesake comic, each episode begins with a voiceover by the omniscient observer of the Multiverse - Uatu (Jeffrey Wright) the Watcher - outlining the vast possibilities of infinite parallel realities. From there, Uatu pinpoints a specific, iconic moment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s storied 13-year history, and asks the question: “What if?” The first three episodes throw some undoubtedly fun wrenches into our favorite superhero moments: What if Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) received the Super Soldier Serum instead of Steve Rogers (voice actor Josh Keaton, stepping in for Chris Evans)? What if T’Challa (the late, great Chadwick Boseman in his final role) was abducted by The Ravagers in place of Peter Quill? What if…well, the third one is quite a pull of the rug better left unspoiled.
“…it’s a clear testament to Marvel Studios’ meticulous world-building and far-reaching recognizability that it can even introduce its own version of What If…?”
With each episode clocking in at approximately 30 minutes, including credits, What If…? is a bite-sized, speculative blast. Like all of Marvel’s Disney Plus slate, the series is tailor-made for die-hard MCU fans; while it certainly isn’t inaccessible for casual viewers, your mileage will vary depending on the time invested in the Marvel cinematic library, not unlike WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki before it. Those well-versed will get the most out of What If…?, soaking up all of the Easter eggs hidden, threads pulled, and parallels dropped.
Like many anthologies, What If…? is quite uneven with its entries. Out of the three episodes watched for review, the first - which sees Peggy Carter take up Captain America’s shield, now emblazoned with a Union Jack - is probably the weakest. The first thing you may notice about the series is that the voice acting is wildly inconsistent. Hayley Atwell as Peggy far and away fares the best out of the entire cast of the first three episodes, slipping comfortably back into the role and fully embodying Agent Carter’s gumption from behind the mic, but most of her co-stars aren’t of the same caliber. Sebastian Stan and Dominic Cooper reprise their characters of Bucky and Howard Stark, but their on-screen charisma don’t translate at all. If anything, What If…? proves that acting and voice acting are not one and the same, and that experience in the recording booth matters. For example, take Josh Keaton - a seasoned voice actor - and his Steve Rogers: he doesn’t really sound like Chris Evans all that much, but his experience allows him to inhabit the character of Skinny Steve as a faithful interpretation rather than a hollow facsimile. Behind Atwell’s Captain Carter, it’s the best performance in the episode. And within the infinite possibilities of what What If…? can afford, its first entry doesn’t exactly go for broke - instead of blowing the lid off the Captain America mythos, it’s largely just a rehash of The First Avenger with some fun twists added in. Swapping Steve for Peggy mines a good time from novelty, but it hardly changes the trajectory of its film counterpart.
“The mishmash quality of the voice acting persists, but [episodes two and three] as a whole find better footing in the concept of What If…? and its boundless potential.”
Episodes two and three do a much better job of fulfilling their Multiversal promise, giving us Chadwick Boseman’s swan song as T’Challa in an intergalactic heist caper, and a surprisingly dark murder mystery featuring Black Widow (Lake Bell, stepping in for Scarlett Johansson). The mishmash quality of the voice acting persists, but the episodes as a whole find better footing in the concept of What If…? and its boundless potential. Essentially rearranging the worlds of Guardians and the Galaxy, Black Panther, and The Avengers, the latter installments lean into just how different things can be within the Multiverse: familiar characters take shocking, surprising turns, and entire narratives are inverted in fun and refreshing ways. T’Challa as the new Star Lord is particularly delightful, bringing his honor and nobility into the lawless, cosmic corners of the MCU. But it’s also here that the episodes’ fleet runtimes hamstring What If…?; most of the episodes end when they reach their peak, leaving their audience wanting more from these glimpses into the Multiverse. There are still plenty of episodes left that may revisit these newly reconfigured characters, but cutting their storylines off at the knees makes for a somewhat deflated experience.
The animation, which many fans bristled against at first, ranges from serviceable to great. In the early look stills, What If…?’s awkward cel shading was called out as “cheap” and “ugly,” and many pointed out that a “reject modernity, embrace tradition” route to the animation may have suited the series better, but the art style of What If…? looks much better in motion. In particular, the action scenes shine with some of the most fluid combat this side of Western animation - the first episode’s Captain Carter set pieces are especially impressive, dazzling with kinetic energy and intricate choreography. Things, however, suffer a lot more when the action abates: The mix of 2D and 3D art just looks awkward when the characters aren’t in motion, and slower dialogue-centric scenes come off as stagnant.
Writer and creator A.C. Bradley - putting his whole weight behind the Multiverse concept - confirms that What If…? is Marvel canon. However, whether it can transcend its trappings as an anthology of mere curiosities is a different story altogether. Having seen only the first three episodes, it seems that What If…? is still finding its feet. Even with spotty voice work and inconsistency among its separate narratives, the series is a genuine blast to watch as it twists the Marvel Cinematic Universe into wild shapes we’ve never seen before, utilizing the characters we’ve grown to love. But will What If…? end up as an essential text for Phase Four or just a disposable - but enjoyable - detour? Only time will tell.
