That’s a heavy question ‘What if?’ since it implies so much despite ending as a question and not a statement. But anyone that has read the comic book series that Marvel has been working on for so long knows very well what can happen if one little thing is changed in a story, or if something monumentally messed-up happens that can alter the course of history. Having read the comics for so long it’s been fun to see what kind of stories come from this premise, and it’s bound to be extremely interesting to see what will happen now that the MCU has been rolling for a little while. Just taking a look at the trailer is enough to make it clear that a lot of what transpired in the comics won’t be coming Disney+. What If? is supposedly coming soon and will be changing up a lot of things that people have grown used to in the MCU, and it’s likely that a few of the stories will be pretty interesting since already it would appear that many of the characters have been changed around in a lot of ways.
For one, the idea of Killmonger meeting and saving Tony Stark opens up a wide range of possibilities since imagine if Killmonger had Stark backing him, and then gave Stark access to the vibranium and technology of Wakanda? That sounds like a dark day on the horizon, but it could still prove to be a provocative story. Then there’s Captain Carter, which would mean that somehow, some way, Steve Rogers either didn’t become Captain America and Peggy Carter became the super-soldier, or something else happened that we’re not seeing yet. Then there’s the idea of T’Challa being lifted from Wakanda by Yondu instead of Peter Quill being taken. It’s funny to think that maybe Ego would have still sought Peter out, or maybe he would have tried something else. But T’Challa as a Ravager would be kind of interesting, and it would be interesting to see him as a Guardian of the Galaxy.
One thing to remember about a lot of the What If? stories from the past is that they could end in unexpected triumph, or they could end in unbearable tragedy since some of them depicted scenes in which the heroes lost and in some cases were never there in the first place. This is one of the many reasons why the Marvel universe is so great since it’s not just the multiverse that it deals with, but the endless possibilities that come from making one move versus another, saying the wrong thing versus the right, and so on and so forth. One small thing in the universe could change how everything comes to be, almost like the butterfly effect but on a much more massive scale in a lot of cases. It feels possible that if this series is successful that it could end up getting a second and perhaps even third season since the premise is easy to take given that it’s rehashing many stories that have been prevalent throughout the MCU. There’s no doubt that the series will stay away from the movies and series that haven’t come out yet, but there’s still plenty of material to make things happen.
Just imagine what might have happened if Tony had died instead of being saved, or if Pepper had died at some point. Or maybe think what might have come about had Carol been killed in the explosion that granted her the cosmic power that saved her life. Or maybe wonder what might have happened if Janet van Dyne hadn’t disappeared into the Quantum Zone. There are a lot of different questions to be asked and a lot of different stories to tell since they exist stacked atop one another in the ever-widening realm of possibilities that could have happened but didn’t. This is bound to be a fun series since there are so many different ways to go with this. It’s likely that the MCU will stick with related subject material for the most part, but there does appear to be a story with Marvel zombies that will be shown, so it’s easy to think that there might be other stories that don’t necessarily conform to the current MCU.
It’s nice to think that the series will be as popular as anything that’s come along lately, but it’s also important to realize that some folks might want to argue incessantly over one point or another when it comes to the stories that are being depicted. The important thing to remember is that each episode is a scenario that COULD have happened had circumstances been different. The MCU is still the same as it was, but this will give us a look into how things could have been.
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