What If Season 3 Review: Once More, I’m Frustrated That Marvel Ignored This Show’s True Potential
For the past three years, Marvel has released a new chapter of creative, refreshing, and occasionally downright silly animation with What If…? The annual MCU event ends (apart from the upcoming Marvel Zombies spin-off in 2025) with this year’s Season 3 drop, once more timed to release an episode every day across Christmas.
Over the same course of time, What If…? has consistently struggled to pick the lowest-hanging fruit possible in its multiverse: actually answering any questions anyone might have about the Sliding Doors parts of the Multiverse. The very concept of What If…? as it was originally conceived was to explore what would happen if things moments on the Marvel timeline we all know had not gone as they did in canon history. Marvel Studios simply didn’t hasn"t done that.
What If… ? is an animated anthology series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which features fan-favorite characters, including Peggy Carter, T’Challa, Doctor Strange, Killmonger, Thor, and more. The new series, directed by Bryan Andrews with AC Bradley as head writer, features signature MCU action with a curious twist. The show sees Uatu the Watcher, an omnipotent being that observes the events of multiple universes from afar as they unfold, unable to interfere. However, things shift when an entity peers beyond the veil, jeopardizing the multiverse.
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*Availability in US Release Date August 11, 2021 Franchise(s) Marvel Cinematic Universe Seasons 3 Writers Ashley Bradley , Matthew Chauncey Showrunner Ashley Bradley The third season of What If…? now heading to Disney+ in its usual festive slot, and it’s largely the same situation all over again. Creative - often zany - concepts pulled out of thin air that don’t so much riff on “real” Marvel history, but to use the concept as an excuse to mess around a bit. It’s become clear that we always knew the end of the title’s question: What If... Marvel Answered Questions Nobody Would Ever Ask?
You Can’t Argue With The Quality… Mostly Close As with both of the previous two seasons, What If…? Season 3 is technically impressive: the animation is great and the medium is actively used to show setpieces that simply wouldn’t be possible in live-action. Celestials fighting would look silly in the mainline MCU; mecha-Avengers duking it out with giant Hulks would be, I suspect, too cartoonish. But in animation, it all works, and there’s a lot of style to it.
Commendably, more conventionally cinematic sequences also work: smaller scale fight scenes have a habit of feeling less impactful in realistic animation (even X-Men ‘97 proved that), but What If…? has always felt choreographed. And car chases work well too: in short, the show manages the same accomplished feel in grounded scenes as the MCU does in live-action.
The voice work is mostly very good, despite the often-controversial decision to lean away from actual voice actors. It takes different muscles to be a voice actor, and there are precious few who cross over into live-action well because of that. Which is precisely why Alan Tudyk voices roughly 87% of all characters you’d care to name. The returning members of What If...?"s cast from other MCU projects do mostly well, sometimes lacking the higher energy animation requires. Theres definitely a spectrum of quality where David Harbour (Red Guardian), Seth Green, and Kat Dennings at the top end, and Anthony Mackie, Oscar Isaac, and others somewhere lower.
That’s not to be unfair to those actors, they’re very good at owning their original characters, and you can admire the brand decision to bring them back, but it’s just obvious when they’ve done less voice acting than some of their costars. And it’s particularly telling when some of the recasts step in for MCU originals who couldn’t reprise their roles for whatever reason.
The Stories In What If Season 3 Feel Sillier Than Last Time Close Three seasons in, I have to accept that I have become radicalized by What If…?’s failure to deliver on its real promise. Even while accepting that the production quality is great, and there are standout moments, it’s impossible to ignore the specter of what this all should have been.
Marvel fans wanted to see close multiversal variations of real MCU moments: branches that feel like they could have happened. Frustratingly, we’ve seen this more in live-action in flashes thanks to Loki, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, where the stakes are more tangible because there’s just more of a sense of investment. I always wanted to see answers to things like the other half of the universe surviving Thanos’ snap, or Tony Stark not sacrificing himself, or Captain America not being lost in time. Instead, I got what would happen if Howard The Duck married Darcy.
These are not pitch meetings I would ever predict in a million years, because they simply don’t register as beneficial to the MCU story brand. But perhaps that was always the point: this was meant to be a series of more frivolous free throws that didn’t require the same level of homework as the live-action timeline does. Which would be easier to accept if Season 2 hadn’t created a unified but annexed timeline, and Captain Carter wasn’t in live-action precisely because of What If…?
What If Season 3 Course Corrects Somewhat Close That decision to centralize everything around Captain Carter in season 2 led to a compromise in vision, with limits placed on imagination. That isn’t a criticism of the character, and actually I’m glad she jumped to live-action even if she deserved better in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but it limited the scope a little. What If...? season 3 mostly abandons that singular narrative to instead focus on what amounts to a series of heartfelt PSAs about the value of love and friendship and being nice. I found some of it rather cloying, to be frank, but if you’ve ever wanted a Sesame Street vibe to your MCU content, you’ll be delighted.
Captain Carter and the Guardians of the Multiverse return in What If...? season 3, but not to the same degree as the previous season.
Season 3 of any show - and the promise of it being the final season, to boot - would usually mean more risk-taking. Sort of like a second-term presidency where you can get away with doing whatever you like free from the pressure of having to make yourself re-electable. That does seem to have been adopted in What If...? as an opportunity to be increasingly more unhinged: a suspicion that reaches its climax when Howard the Duck and Darcy (the Duck) chase across the galaxy attempting to stop their offspring from being weaponized for nefarious means.
That episode, and, let’s be honest, most of the season’s new chapters, is an example of the real brand of What If...?: nonsense. At almost every turn, when something genuinely interesting arises, it’s smashed under the celestial-sized fist of silliness. Perhaps I’m wrong for expecting something else, but I definitely feel like this is all a case of high-gloss missed opportunities.
So, is What If...? season 3 worth watching? Absolutely. It is an undeniably well-made production; the commitment to pure fun is very admirable; there"s more from some popular characters (and reappearances from some more surprising ones); and we genuinely won"t see most of what it does in the mainline MCU. Some of the story-telling is a little rushed, some of the characters could have got a little more to do (and others feel a little shoe-horned in), and there should have been a closer commitment to telling stories that matter to the MCU, but if you liked it already, you will again.
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6/10 What If...?
Pros The animation is excellent, again. There is a lot of imagination on show. The opportunity to see more of the MCU's lesser characters is a positive. Cons Some of the voice acting is uneven. The What If concept is too untethered from tangible MCU storylines. Certain episodes are just too silly. New episodes of What If...? season 3 release every day from December 22 to 29 on Disney+
Over the same course of time, What If…? has consistently struggled to pick the lowest-hanging fruit possible in its multiverse: actually answering any questions anyone might have about the Sliding Doors parts of the Multiverse. The very concept of What If…? as it was originally conceived was to explore what would happen if things moments on the Marvel timeline we all know had not gone as they did in canon history. Marvel Studios simply didn’t hasn"t done that.
What If… ? is an animated anthology series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which features fan-favorite characters, including Peggy Carter, T’Challa, Doctor Strange, Killmonger, Thor, and more. The new series, directed by Bryan Andrews with AC Bradley as head writer, features signature MCU action with a curious twist. The show sees Uatu the Watcher, an omnipotent being that observes the events of multiple universes from afar as they unfold, unable to interfere. However, things shift when an entity peers beyond the veil, jeopardizing the multiverse.
Where to Watch stream rent buy Not available
Not available
Not available
*Availability in US Release Date August 11, 2021 Franchise(s) Marvel Cinematic Universe Seasons 3 Writers Ashley Bradley , Matthew Chauncey Showrunner Ashley Bradley The third season of What If…? now heading to Disney+ in its usual festive slot, and it’s largely the same situation all over again. Creative - often zany - concepts pulled out of thin air that don’t so much riff on “real” Marvel history, but to use the concept as an excuse to mess around a bit. It’s become clear that we always knew the end of the title’s question: What If... Marvel Answered Questions Nobody Would Ever Ask?
You Can’t Argue With The Quality… Mostly Close As with both of the previous two seasons, What If…? Season 3 is technically impressive: the animation is great and the medium is actively used to show setpieces that simply wouldn’t be possible in live-action. Celestials fighting would look silly in the mainline MCU; mecha-Avengers duking it out with giant Hulks would be, I suspect, too cartoonish. But in animation, it all works, and there’s a lot of style to it.
Commendably, more conventionally cinematic sequences also work: smaller scale fight scenes have a habit of feeling less impactful in realistic animation (even X-Men ‘97 proved that), but What If…? has always felt choreographed. And car chases work well too: in short, the show manages the same accomplished feel in grounded scenes as the MCU does in live-action.
The voice work is mostly very good, despite the often-controversial decision to lean away from actual voice actors. It takes different muscles to be a voice actor, and there are precious few who cross over into live-action well because of that. Which is precisely why Alan Tudyk voices roughly 87% of all characters you’d care to name. The returning members of What If...?"s cast from other MCU projects do mostly well, sometimes lacking the higher energy animation requires. Theres definitely a spectrum of quality where David Harbour (Red Guardian), Seth Green, and Kat Dennings at the top end, and Anthony Mackie, Oscar Isaac, and others somewhere lower.
That’s not to be unfair to those actors, they’re very good at owning their original characters, and you can admire the brand decision to bring them back, but it’s just obvious when they’ve done less voice acting than some of their costars. And it’s particularly telling when some of the recasts step in for MCU originals who couldn’t reprise their roles for whatever reason.
The Stories In What If Season 3 Feel Sillier Than Last Time Close Three seasons in, I have to accept that I have become radicalized by What If…?’s failure to deliver on its real promise. Even while accepting that the production quality is great, and there are standout moments, it’s impossible to ignore the specter of what this all should have been.
Marvel fans wanted to see close multiversal variations of real MCU moments: branches that feel like they could have happened. Frustratingly, we’ve seen this more in live-action in flashes thanks to Loki, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, where the stakes are more tangible because there’s just more of a sense of investment. I always wanted to see answers to things like the other half of the universe surviving Thanos’ snap, or Tony Stark not sacrificing himself, or Captain America not being lost in time. Instead, I got what would happen if Howard The Duck married Darcy.
These are not pitch meetings I would ever predict in a million years, because they simply don’t register as beneficial to the MCU story brand. But perhaps that was always the point: this was meant to be a series of more frivolous free throws that didn’t require the same level of homework as the live-action timeline does. Which would be easier to accept if Season 2 hadn’t created a unified but annexed timeline, and Captain Carter wasn’t in live-action precisely because of What If…?
What If Season 3 Course Corrects Somewhat Close That decision to centralize everything around Captain Carter in season 2 led to a compromise in vision, with limits placed on imagination. That isn’t a criticism of the character, and actually I’m glad she jumped to live-action even if she deserved better in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but it limited the scope a little. What If...? season 3 mostly abandons that singular narrative to instead focus on what amounts to a series of heartfelt PSAs about the value of love and friendship and being nice. I found some of it rather cloying, to be frank, but if you’ve ever wanted a Sesame Street vibe to your MCU content, you’ll be delighted.
Captain Carter and the Guardians of the Multiverse return in What If...? season 3, but not to the same degree as the previous season.
Season 3 of any show - and the promise of it being the final season, to boot - would usually mean more risk-taking. Sort of like a second-term presidency where you can get away with doing whatever you like free from the pressure of having to make yourself re-electable. That does seem to have been adopted in What If...? as an opportunity to be increasingly more unhinged: a suspicion that reaches its climax when Howard the Duck and Darcy (the Duck) chase across the galaxy attempting to stop their offspring from being weaponized for nefarious means.
That episode, and, let’s be honest, most of the season’s new chapters, is an example of the real brand of What If...?: nonsense. At almost every turn, when something genuinely interesting arises, it’s smashed under the celestial-sized fist of silliness. Perhaps I’m wrong for expecting something else, but I definitely feel like this is all a case of high-gloss missed opportunities.
So, is What If...? season 3 worth watching? Absolutely. It is an undeniably well-made production; the commitment to pure fun is very admirable; there"s more from some popular characters (and reappearances from some more surprising ones); and we genuinely won"t see most of what it does in the mainline MCU. Some of the story-telling is a little rushed, some of the characters could have got a little more to do (and others feel a little shoe-horned in), and there should have been a closer commitment to telling stories that matter to the MCU, but if you liked it already, you will again.
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6/10 What If...? Pros The animation is excellent, again. There is a lot of imagination on show. The opportunity to see more of the MCU's lesser characters is a positive. Cons Some of the voice acting is uneven. The What If concept is too untethered from tangible MCU storylines. Certain episodes are just too silly. New episodes of What If...? season 3 release every day from December 22 to 29 on Disney+
