Alternate-reality television

Gorgeous but meaningless animated Marvel series has some fun asking ‘What If…?

What if … Marvel Studios put all this effort into stories that mattered?

That was the question that kept surfacing during an advanced look at the first three episodes of “What If…?” — an impressively made animated anthology series debuting this week on Disney+.

Disney-owned Marvel Studio’s first-ever animated series, “What If…?” is entirely multiverse-al in its storytelling. That is to say the tales it spins, while technically part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, exist outside the main MCU timeline. (It is inspired by a Marvel Comics book of the same name that debuted in 1977.)

Here to tide Marvel fans over until the live-action series “Hawkeye” debuts in late November, “What If…?” is a terrific-looking series that, quite impressively, boasts voicework from more than 50 actors who’ve appeared in MCU content. We’re talking Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson, Haley Atwell, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston and, most impactfully, the late Chadwick Boseman.

(Among the heavy hitters not voicing their characters is “Black Widow” star Scarlett Johansson, who has brought a lawsuit against Disney related to the release of that movie. Coincidence…?)

The series’ roughly 30-minute episodes feel epic enough that, perhaps in another reality, they could have an effect on future

MCU stories. Again, they won’t have one in the MCU.

All of that said, they are largely entertaining. And the series’ hook does allow for some intriguing situations.

In the first episode, for example, Steve Rogers (not voiced by Chris Evans) does not become Captain America. Instead, the Atwellvoiced

Peggy Carter becomes super-powered Captain Carter, complete with a shield bearing the British flag. Given that this is the early 1940s, she endures her fair share of sexism as she tries to turn the tide of World War II against the Nazis — with the help of Steve and other familiar Marvel friends.

Of the three episodes made available to critics, it’s next week’s that is the most impressive. We won’t spoil too much, but it involves characters from both “Black Panther” and the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films. It is a clever idea to have changed the identity of one of the key heroes in the way the makers of the show have.

The third episode is packed with even familiar headline characters, as someone is killing potential Avengers and framing other heroes for the murders. Black Widow and Jackson’s Nick Fury race to stop this unknown killer — and you will not guess this individual’s identity, we promise.

Marvel hired animation veteran Bryan Andrews — who’s done storyboarding work for many an MCU movie, as well — to direct the series, and, from a visual standpoint, it is borderlinespectacular. Its character designs are excellent, and elements from the coloring to the lighting are dramatic.

AC Bradley (“Trollhunters”) serves as head writer, and the writing is a mixed bag. Because the stories being told sometimes are

based on the events of an entire flick, these alternate versions can feel Quicksilver-fast. Hey, you probably won’t have time to grow bored with any one installment.

And as big-screen as “What If…?” can feel at times, it also has a Saturday-morning-cartoon vibe thanks to silly opening and closing narration by Jeffrey Wright (“Westworld”) as The Watcher, our otherworldly but powerless guide through this multiverse.

“Time, space, reality — it’s more than a linear path; it’s a prism of endless possibility, where a single choice and branch out into infinite realities creating alternate worlds from the one you know,” he says. “Follow me and ponder the question, ‘What if … ?”

OK, take it down a notch, Watch-y. We get it.

“What If…?” reportedly is set to run two nine-episode seasons, with upcoming installments featuring big names such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Paul Rudd.

What if … before its over, Disney and Johansson settle their differences and she portrays Black Widow one more time?

Well, maybe in one reality or another.

DISNEY+ PHOTOS In “What If …?,” Agent Carter (voiced by Hayley Atwell) wields the shield as a super-soldier.

Marvel heroes Nick Fury (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) appear in an upcoming episode of Disney+ series “What If...?”

Jeffrey Wright voices The Watcher, who serves as the viewers’ guide through the multiverse in Marvel Cinematic Universe series “What If...?”