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Credit: Marvel TelevisionMarvel Studios desperately needs a blockbuster hit or critical goodwill, which makes it all the more strange that it has decided to cancel its longest-running and most critically acclaimed series, What If…?, after the upcoming season 3.
What If…? was one of the first Marvel Cinematic Universe series to hit Disney+ after the streaming service launched in 2019 and by a significant margin, the most ambitious. While Wandavision delved into the emotional trauma of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier delved into issues of race and politics, and Loki made a good guy out of a bad one, What If…? opened the MCU to a previously unseen world of possibilities.
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Inspired by the Marvel Comics series of the same name, which featured stories like “What If Spider-Man Had Stopped the Burglar Who Killed His Uncle?” and “What If… Wolverine Was an Agent of SHIELD?” and was presented by the mysterious Uatu the Watcher, the Disney+ animated series was immediately critically acclaimed.
The show was able to dispense with the increasingly tangled continuity of the MCU by simply telling stories in alternate timelines but with the comfort of familiar voice actors and the soothingly gravelly tones of Jeffrey Wright as Uatu.
Despite that, it seems as though What If…? Season 3 will be the end of the series. In a recent appearance on The Official Marvel Podcast, Marvel Streaming, Television, and Animation chief Brad Winderbaum (who’s almost always ready to give a quote) described the upcoming season as the “conclusion” of a trilogy, which feels very final.
Winderbaum said, “It feels like the completion of a trilogy. It takes us to places that you’d never expect. It goes beyond the first two seasons, and its exploration of the Multiverse, and it pulls in characters that are very unexpected and has what I think is an extremely moving and fulfilling culmination for Uatu the Watcher.
What If…? Season 1 was not initially promoted as the beginning of a trilogy of Multiverse stories, so it is unclear whether this decision was made on the fly as Winderbaum and Kevin Feige try to restore the MCU to its former glory or whether the studio has been playing the long game all along.
Related: Fan-Favorite ‘What If…?’ Character Reportedly Joining MCU
What If…? Season 3 sees Matthew Chauncey coming in as head writer and Bryan Andrews directing the latest batch of episodes, with Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, and Laurence Fishburne as Bill Foster all expected to vocally reprise their roles. Anthony Mackie and Teyonah Parris are both speculated to also appear on the show, as early images depict Sam Wilson and Monica Rambeau teaming up.
More famous voices like Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner will likely be showing up in What If…? Season 3, but Marvel is currently keeping mum on who else might be showing up to keep the Watcher entertained or even when the new season will be replaced. But if you read between the lines, this sounds like it might be the final adventure for Uatu and Marvel’s most critically acclaimed series.
Do you think Marvel will make a What If…? Season 4?