Let us ponder the question of What If….What if Disney never bought Marvel, what if Jon Favreau never directed Iron Man, what if Kevin Feige never took over as the head of Marvel and gave us the MCU as we know it now? There are so many questions that can be asked, and so many alternative realities we can be living in, with three seasons of What If… now we get to explore further questions and see what happens at the end of the universe with The Watcher.
Without spoiling specifics the first four episodes of What If…Season 3 focuses on the Hulk fighting the Mech Avengers, Agatha going Hollywood, Red Guardian stopping the Winter Soldier, and Howard the Duck getting hitched, truly answering some questions people have wanted to know for years, questions no one needed to know, and the buddy cop film no one knew they wanted but ended up being a delight from start to end. Each episode clocks in around 30 minutes (without credits) and alludes to the overall story that the season is going to try and wrap with the final two episodes. As well most of the original actors have returned to lend their voices to their characters bringing a further continuation into the universe and pondering the ultimate question of What If…
The problem with television series that aren’t inherently connected to the rest of the universe, nor connected to the entire season as a whole (at least the first four episodes don’t entirely appear connected) is the stories sometimes run a little long and don’t entirely have the pay off audiences hope for, specifically What If…The Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers and What If….Howard the Duck got Hitched they are both a little slow and feel out of place. Agatha Went to Hollywood and Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier plays into other stories that existed, or feel like they’ll play into future projects, but overall they feel connected to something deeper into the universe rather than just an episode that plays into the overall cinematic universe.
Overall, heading into a third season of a show that explores the alternative realities of exploration there is only so much that truly could’ve been done. If there was further exploration of the change of the MCU (which seems to happen in some later episodes) then this would’ve felt more complete but there is still entertainment within these first four episodes. Exploring these alternative universes and character studies is always enjoyable, just after 18 episodes of exploring the ‘What If’ questions less filler and more answers pertaining to The Watcher would’ve proved to be better, despite how entertaining the episodes may have been.
