Helmed by Bryan Andrews, Matthew Chauncey, and AC Bradley, Season 3 of “What If…?” concludes the trilogy with the Watcher once again guiding viewers through the vast multiverse, introducing brand new and familiar faces in the anthology series that questions, revisits and twists classic Marvel Cinematic moments as well as introduce completely new stories.
This season is considered to be the “final” season of the series, bringing us a final batch of multiverse stories to watch as a possible result of changes to the overarching narrative of the Multiverse Saga. I was hoping that they could at least end this trilogy on a good note before moving on to other projects and after seeing all eight episodes I think they did end it on a great note. While I don’t think it is as strong as a whole compared to the previous season it is still a solid third season that provided some creative concepts, amazing character interactions, outstanding animation, and fantastic action that brings the series to a nice close. It all comes together in a satisfying conclusion to the series, but it’s a shame that the show has to end so soon when they’ve finally found their footing, as there are still many stories to tell in the vast multiverse.
This season escalated the show, with bigger stakes and wacky and imaginative scenarios while also balancing its humorous episodes with darker, serious ones that were extremely compelling to watch. As this is an anthology series I will break down each episode like I did before, and as always will try not to reveal any major spoilers for most of the episodes except for the last two which will feature mild spoilers.
Kicking things off with a bang is Episode 1 titled is “What If The Hulk Fought The Mech Avengers?”, which follows an alternate universe where a uniquely paired team of Avengers consisting of Sam Wilson aka Captain America (Anthony Mackie), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Marc Spector aka Moon Knight (Oscar Isaac), Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian (David Harbour), Melina Vostokoff (Kari Wahlgren), Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Nakia (Brittany Adebumola) who come together in giant Mech suits to a Godzilla-like variant of the Hulk that was accidentally created by Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) in vain attempt to cure himself.
This first episode was such a fun start for the season that delivered lots of anime-inspired action and animation while also giving us great team dynamics with various MCU heroes and meaningful conversations with characters we had never seen interact before. As a huge fan of Kaiju films, this felt like the perfect episode for me as it fully commits to its creative premise delivering endless entertainment with some of my favorite characters from the Multiverse Saga involved. But even with the high amount of entertainment presented in this episode there are also some deep character moments that occur mainly between Bruce Banner and Sam Wilson, both voiced extremely well by Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Mackie respectively.
This episode has some of the best writing that Bruce Banner has received in a while and Sam Wilson gets the chance to shine as a good man who follows and leads with his heart, even if it ends up costing his life. It’s a quality that makes him the perfect candidate to be Captain America and lead the Avengers, which I hope we will be seeing in his upcoming film next year and soon the upcoming Avengers films.
I would have liked to have seen more moments with the other characters involved in this episode but they were still fun additions to have, including Monica Rambeau whom I’ve missed since The Marvels. It was a great start to what was promised to be a wild season.
Episode 2 “What If Agatha Went To Hollywood?” follows Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) in an alternate universe where she plans to enact a magical ritual to siphon the cosmic power of Tiamut, the Celestial buried in the Earth’s core, and decides to become an actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood starring in pictures directed by Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) in order to accomplish her goal. However, her actions gain the attention of one of the Eternals, Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), resulting in a Hollywood-style confrontation that puts the fate of the world at risk.
The witchcraft world of Agatha and the cosmic world of Eternals combine in this universe making for a really fun episode that makes great use of two lovable characters in an old-fashioned Hollywood setting packed with meta-humor and gorgeously animated sequences. Coming off the grand successes of her own show, Kathryn Hahn is once again fantastic as Agatha and she is an absolute delight in this episode as we see her up to her villainous schemes as expected but this time is meddling with the power of Celestials.
Attempting to stop her is Kingo, reprised by Kumail Nanjiani, who was so great to see again after so long having not lost the comedic charm he had back in the Eternals film. The two of them make for a surprisingly fun pair to watch as we see their personalities and worlds clash in a setting that doesn’t hesitate to take humorous jabs at the film industry as well as Marvel films themselves. The episode is mostly comedic in tone to match the era it’s set in but it does have an epic moment near the end that showcases how wickedly powerful Agatha could be followed by a wholesome message from Kingo related to the importance of films and telling stories, which as someone who watches a lot of films I really loved.
Episode 3 “What If the Red Guardian stopped the Winter Soldier?” follows the Red Guardian (David Harbour) and the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) in an alternate universe where Red Guardian interferes with the Winter Soldier’s mission to recover a case of super-soldier serum from Howard and Maria Stark in 1991. The interference results in the survival of the Starks and both men on the run from American authorities led by Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne) as well as a task force sent by the Red Room. This episode was basically a full-on 90s buddy cop action film featuring Red Guardian and Winter Soldier and it was absolutely hilarious.
This may honestly be one of the funniest episodes of the entire show mainly because of the leading duo we are given and their performances by their respective actors. Sebastian Stan plays the straight man as Bucky but David Harbour goes all in with his performance as Alexei, delivering absolute comedic gold with every line of dialogue he has in this episode. The setting and action are also very entertaining as we get to see Bill Foster in action again as Goliath paired with a ranger named Morales, voiced wonderfully by America Ferrera, who was a fun addition, but truly it’s the leading pair that absolutely dominated this episode. If this is the kind of banter and dynamic we should expect to see between these two characters in next year’s Thunderbolts then we are in for a really great time with this duo and I couldn’t be more excited.
Episode 4 “What If Howard The Duck Got Hitched?” is a continuation of the Party Thor universe from Season 1 following Howard the Duck (Seth Green) and Darcy (Kat Dennings) who after getting married in Las Vegas are now protecting their child in the form of an egg from multiple Marvel villains that are dead set on taking it for themselves due to its apparent cosmic importance. This episode was unhinged, unserious, and felt like an absolute fever dream that embraced the really weird side of older What If comics as well as felt written by writers that were possibly on acid. I’m so torn up about it even now that I don’t know whether to ironically love it or hate it, it’s that bizarre, as well as reminding me of that insane Howard the Duck film from 1986. It is an ambitious wild ride that does feature some great jokes, gorgeous animation, a good needle drop involving KISS, and surprisingly fun appearances from characters we haven’t seen in a long time, but it also felt like a chaotic assault on the senses with just how insane it goes.
I’m someone who loves when comic book media embraces the weird and absurd elements from comics as I feel that they can be crafted into meaningful and unique stories that can be refreshing compared to others, but I’ll admit this one was perhaps a bit too weird and absurd even for me. The episode does have a surprisingly big tie-in for the finale that I think ended up being a good payoff from this crazy story though I still feel incredibly divisive on the episode as a whole much like others have felt. However, things improve hugely in the following episode.
Episode 5 “What If… the Emergence Destroyed the Earth?” is set in an alternate future where the Emergence destroyed Earth years before the Eternals could stop it. With the planet left in literal pieces by Tiamut’s birth, Quentin Beck aka Mysterio (Alejandro Saab) made his move and took over Stark Industries, creating an army of drones called the Iron Federation to keep the survivors of the Emergence under his control. A group of rebel survivors consisting of Riri Williams aka Iron Heart (Dominique Thorne), Wong (David Chen), Okoye (Kenna Ramsey), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and Ying Nan (Michelle Wong) seek to confront and put an end to Mysterio’s dystopian empire. This episode was absolutely phenomenal and may honestly be one of the best episodes of the entire series. Everything from the voice performances, the concept, the writing, the twists, the stakes, the animation, and the action were all incredibly well done and I loved it from start to end. The main highlights for me were Dominique as Riri and Alejandro as Quentin, who bring such raw emotional intensity in their voice roles, both individually and together, especially in this one particular sequence that I consider to be one of the best moments in this series as a whole mostly because of them.
Riri was a great supporting character in Wakanda Forever but here she got to prove herself as a compelling lead character even before her own series that begins next year. Such an amazing episode overall that also ends on a really interesting note when the Watcher’s interference over the course of the series ends up getting the attention of others who are watching him and are displeased with his actions.
Episode 6 “What If… 1872?” follows Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) in an alternate version of the Wild West where they are on a righteous pursuit of a mysterious villain, known as the Hood, who is responsible for numerous crimes including kidnapping Shang-Chi’s sister Xu Xialing (Meng’er Zhang) as well as killing Kate’s family. Similar to season 2’s amazing 1602 episode, this episode brings several MCU characters into a specific time period and has so much creative fun with them, making for a fantastic story full of great twists, incredible action, surprising appearances and some strong emotional moments. It very much plays out like an old-school Western in both style and tone, resulting in a grand adventure that has great tension and thrilling elements that had me hooked all the way.
We get to see Shang-Chi and Kate Bishop work together as a surprisingly effective duo, having excellent chemistry together both in their interactions and their action scenes, using their respective skills in the Wild West setting. It honestly made me miss these characters and the cast members that play as them in live action so I really hope we can see them return soon and be able to interact again but on the big screen.
This episode makes full use of its Wild West setting, even going as far as to include some historical events of the late 19th century and integrate them within the plot and character motives seamlessly, which I was honestly glad to see them do, given how dark the referenced real-world events are. It was an awesome and creative episode that made me wish to see more period based Marvel universe stories where various characters could be put in other eras and just have an absolute blast like the 1602 episode and this one.
Episode 7 “What If… the Watcher Disappeared?” follows directly after the cliffhanger ending of the previous episode where the Watcher is taken to the Fifth Dimension and forced to stand trial by three other Watchers: the Eminence, the Incarnate, and the Executioner. This gets the attention of Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell) who leads team a consisting of Kahhori (Devery Jacobs), a new hero called Byrdie (Natasha Lyonne), and a Mjolnir-wielding Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) to find and save the Watcher by any means necessary.
This episode served as an exciting set-up for the finale that delivers shocking surprises, a chilling voice performance from Jason Isaacs as The Eminence, and a new team of exiled multiversal heroes that I did not expect to absolutely love so quickly. They have such a fun dynamic in and out of battle that is mostly thanks to the performances by their respective cast members.
Natasha Lyonne makes her MCU debut as the original character called Byrdie, the daughter of Darcy and Howard from episode 4, and despite her bizarre origins she actually ended up being a really cool character and is given a great performance by Lyonne. I didn’t think I was going to like her character due to my mixed feelings on the episode she came from but she ended up growing on me rather quickly and I’m not entirely opposed to seeing more of her in the future.
I also really loved the inclusion of Storm in this episode, reprised by Alison Sealy-Smith for the second time this year after having just been in X-Men 97. Having her returning to voice in this series was already such a treat on its own but having her voice as the Goddess of Thunder variant of Storm pulled straight from comics was absolutely perfection. I loved seeing her in action in this episode but I also loved the fact that, even though we are seeing her in a different show and universe, she retains the same warmth and wisdom in X-Men The Animated Series as well as X-Men 97.
She shares a brief but heartfelt scene with Captain Carter that genuinely felt emotional even though this is the first time we see these two characters interact, which has been an ongoing theme of this season. The fact that we are able to see many unique pair-ups actually work and feel very compelling is a testament to some of the greatest character writing this season provides. This episode succeeds in setting the stakes and hype for the finale, but does it stick the landing?
Episode 8 “What If… What If?” follows the Exiled heroes and the Watcher, whom they finally refer to as Uatu, as they are pitted against the Eminence, the Incarnate, and the Executioner in a grand battle that will determine the fate of their lives and determine who is truly worthy to watch over the entire Multiverse. This season started off with a bang but it ended on a bigger bang with an epic as f**k finale that delivers Infinity War and Endgame levels of awesomeness and does a fantastic job concluding things for the overarching narrative of the series overall. We get some of the best cosmic action that the MCU has had in a while that is beautifully animated to epic proportions, feeling large in scale and thrilling from start to end with the high stakes involved.
This may honestly be my favorite finale of the series as a whole and I love how it manages to end Uatu and Carter’s arcs in a satisfying and also emotional manner. It also delivers a really deep message of why it’s important to stop watching and start seeing, which not only applies to the main themes about the Watcher and his species but can also be applied to many different themes of life. It’s incredibly well written and adds a cherry on top of the cake that is this fantastic finale.
That being said this finale also feels a bit bittersweet given that this is considered to be the end of the series despite the fact that there are an infinite amount of stories that could be told through this series that even this finale teases by the end.
While I get that there is a larger plan happening for the Multiverse Saga that has been changed up a bit and requires this series to conclude for now it is still sad that it has to be ending so soon when there is so much more they could do. It doesn’t feel entirely like a goodbye, but like a pause until a spiritual successor comes along.
There is set to be a Marvel Zombies series releasing next year, which is technically a spin-off of one of the stories from this series, and that can potentially open the doors for this series to continue in other ways by exploring various universes and ideas in short standalone projects.
I also hope this isn’t the last we see certain characters in the MCU like Uatu and Kahhori because there is more that can be done with them going forward in the right time and place. Aside from episode 4 and the bittersweetness of this series ending, I was ultimately satisfied with this third season and I consider it to be the second best of the series as a whole with the second season being first and the first season being last. If you have been a fan of this series since season 1 or have started liking it after season 2 then I feel you are highly likely to enjoy this season as well despite it being the last one. I hope they can revisit this series one day and continue to tell more stories that are worth being told and that can be complete standalones. I’m going to give What If…? Season 3 an A = 96.
You can find more of my writing on instagram, and check out my channel on YouTube!