A series of What Ifs
Late legend Chadwick Boseman lent voice to animated foray into the MCU
What If ...? Disney+
What if the Marvel Cinematic Universe had an animated alternate reality?
That's the premise behind the new series What If ...?, which recently began streaming on Disney+. It marks Marvel Studios' first foray into the world of animation, while taking inspiration from the classic What If ...? comics that began in 1977. Those comics — and the show — use the power of the hypothetical, remixing classic storylines and taking Marvel characters to places even the most wellread fans wouldn't see coming.
The first issue of What If ...? imagined Spider-Man joining the Fantastic Four (although that did end up happening in the mainstream comics). What If ...? the series will use similar storytelling tactics but will apply them to the first decade of Marvel Studios on film.
One episode features Agent Peggy Carter, voiced by Hayley Atwell, the actress who portrayed her in the Captain America movies when she was the love interest to Chris Evans's Steve Rogers. In What If ...? she's the soldier who takes the super-serum and is handed a shield, becoming Captain Carter.
The goal of each episode is to reel the viewer in with familiar MCU moments before they realize they have no idea what is going to happen.
“The first question was never what if, the first question is where is the heart in the hero?” head writer A.C. Bradley said. “Where's the humanity in these iconic characters that we've all spent so many years watching onscreen and growing up reading comic books? How do we get beyond the shield?”
When she and director Bryan Andrews brainstormed ideas, Bradley joked about wanting to do an episode where Thor love-interest Jane Foster becomes Thor — but she was told not to pursue it because that's actually the storyline of Taika Waititi's next Thor movie.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, the architect of its past decade of interconnected storytelling, was a part of the decision-making process. In one episode, T'Challa, the prince of Wakanda, doesn't grow up to become king and take on the mantle of the Black Panther. Instead, he is whisked to space as a child and grows up to become Star-Lord, leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
T'Challa is voiced by the late Chadwick Boseman, who played the Black Panther in the 2018 movie that grossed a billion dollars. Bosman died in 2020 from complications from colon cancer.
Working with Boseman left a lasting impression on What If ...? producers, none of whom knew that the actor was ill or that the vocals he was recording would represent his last MCU performance.
“He was excited about playing a slightly different riff on T'Challa because he cares for T'Challa and all that T'Challa represents so much,” Andrews said.
Bradley says Boseman understood the impact of T'Challa on younger generations who saw the Black Panther stand shoulder to shoulder with MCU icons Iron Man and Captain America in the movies, and he knew such imagery was important to the future of Marvel Studios.
“When (Chadwick) came to record, he didn't bring his A-game, he brought every damn sport with him. He was the best,” Bradley said. “We didn't realize at the time that we were in the room with a legend that we were going to lose too quickly.”