Marvel’s What If…? season 1 was full of twists and turns as it took the characters from the MCU and placed them in slightly altered realities, but there was an additional story that didn’t appear in season 1 and is set to play out in season 2. What if Earth’s mightiest heroes had made different choices and ended up on entirely different paths? The Marvel animated series takes a closer look at what could have been in the MCU if there were minor differences that happened throughout the timeline.
For the first several episodes of What If…? season 1, the stories didn’t seem to have any clear connection to one another, but as the season progressed, it became more obvious that the series wasn’t just an anthology, but actually had a linear story for the Watcher and the multiversal heroes. During What If…?’s season finale, “What If… The Watcher Broker His Oath,” heroes that appeared throughout season 1 returned to fight Ultron. However, eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed that there are two characters who are clearly implied to have an existing relationship that just appears out of nowhere in the finale, Gamora, and Tony Stark.
Why We Already Know The Plot For A What If…? Season 2 Episode
Now, the thing is, both Gamora and Stark were supposed to have an episode as part of What If season 1, but the episode was cut due to COVID and production constraints. This missing adventure is alluded to in the season 1 finale when The Watcher calls Gamora, “survivor of Sakaar” and she appears on screen next to Stark in a suit that looks similar to the Hulkbuster armor. This story was clearly in the late stages of development and this had an influence on the final episode, so it isn’t a huge leap to think that it could be recycled and appear in What If season 2.
What We Know About Iron Man & Gamora’s What If…? Story
Looking at Gamora and Stark as they appear in What If season 1, episode 9, Gamora can be seen to be wearing armor very similar to her adopted father, Thanos’. Stark, as mentioned above is in a variant of the Hulkbuster suit, but there are clear differences between this armor and the one that appears in Avengers: Infinity War. For one, it appears to be made from a mix of scraps and alien tech, not unlike Stark’s first Iron Man suit. There are also numerous markings all over the armor that are reminiscent of the Sakaarian markings which appeared throughout Thor: Ragnarok on the planet Sakaar.
In addition to the pair’s suits, Tony argues with Gamora about destroying the Infinity Gauntlet to stop Ultron, and in their discussion, he says, “How do we put a suit of armor around the world, around the galaxy?” This line is only slightly modified from a line in Avengers: Age of Ultron where Tony asks the same question, without the statement about the galaxy. With all of the clues laid out, it seems like this episode would have followed a version of Tony Stark from before Age of Ultron. Potentially, after fighting the Chitauri in New York during Avengers, Tony may have still flown through the portal to destroy the alien, but not been able to return through the portal to Earth in time.
If that’s the case, Stark could have easily been lost in space and wound up on the planet of lost things, Sakaar. There, he could have built a version of the Hulkbuster suit in order to compete in the Grandmaster’s tournament and dominate the arena. Gamora wearing her father’s armor and wielding his weapon seem to indicate that she either followed in his footsteps or succeeded in taking him down. Whether the pair meet before this and work together or they find themselves at odds is unclear, but it certainly promises to be an exciting premise for a What If…? episode.
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