With both WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier having finished their first seasons on Disney+ and Loki slated to begin on June 9th, MCU fans have been left wondering, “What about What If?” Thankfully, Disney and Marvel Studios are leaving us wondering no more and have announced an official premiere date for the MCU’s first animated series.
Or almost, at least.
In a recent Entertainment Weekly feature, in which they list the 26 top-most must-see series debuting this summer, they list What If? at number 22, giving it a release date of August. It’s been known for some time that What If? would be debuting during the summer, and with Loki being only a six-episode series, that means it will end in mid-July. So to hold What If? off until August would mean a dearth of Marvel programming for at least two weeks.
Does Disney have another non-Marvel show slated to air in that timeframe? They have been so diligent in making sure that a new show is available every week on Disney+, with maybe only a week downtime in-between finales and premieres, that perhaps we as viewers have just become spoiled. Or is that just me?
What If? is a unique concept in the MCU as it takes the events that happened in past Marvel movies and presents them with a twist. What if…Peggy Carter underwent the Super Soldier procedure? What if…T’Challa had been abducted by Yondu instead of Peter Quill? All of these tales will unfold with absolute earnestness.
What’s interesting about What If? is that many of the MCU’s top talent return to reprise their respective characters, Robert Downey Jr, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Ruffalo, and more. Even Chadwick Boseman finished recording his dialogue for the show before he passed away in August 2020, after a fierce battle with colon cancer.
Despite the wait we’ve already endured for the Marvel shows on Disney+ (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was originally slated to premiere in 2020 but was delayed due to the Coronavirus outbreak), we’re finally getting all of the good stuff Marvel Studios promised us. And even though we have to wait a little bit longer for What If?, I’m confident that the stories will be worth the wait.
