What If...?'s Head Writer's Finale Tease Confirms What We Suspected All Along
"What If...?" has been showing fans many strange, alternate iterations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Disney+ animated show has featured strange scenarios that have caused Black Panther (voiced by Chadwick Boseman) to become Star-Lord, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to lose his heart and turn into a monstrous Strange Supreme, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) to become the super soldier Captain Carter, and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) to kill the original Avengers.
All of these strange alternate universes have one connecting tissue: The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright), who watches them all, yet never interferes. Despite the various horrors and atrocities he's witnessed, the Watcher is completely unflappable. However, after the shocking ending of What If...? episode 7, even he's taken aback. With just the finale looming, and the Infinity Stone-powered Ultron apparently able to freely take his conquering army to other realities, it's easy to start thinking that the endgame of "What If...?" might force the Watcher to take action, possibly by bringing some of the heroes from the previous episodes together to fight the Ultron threat. After all, the show's mid-season sneak peek already suggested that some of the alternate-universe characters we've seen so far might meet.
Looks like this wasn't a bad line of thought, either, because the "What If...?" head writer just essentially confirmed what we suspected all along.
What If... the characters of previous episodes came together?
"What If...?" writer A.C. Bradley just revealed that the show's episode 8, "What If... Ultron Won?" will indeed bring back some of the characters we've already seen ... and it seems like she's not just talking about Captain Carter, who has already been confirmed as one "What If...?" character we'll be seeing more of in the future.
"As we battle toward the finale, we will see some of our heroes again," she said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "And the Watcher learns a few important lessons about what it means to be a hero and comes to a realization about how much these stories, how much these worlds mean to him."
Bradley also teased that the central question of the finale isn't necessarily whether Ultron is defeated, but what, if any, role the Watcher will take in the proceedings. "Going into the finale, a major source of tension is: Will the Watcher ever break his oath? Or will he remain who he is?" Bradley teases. "Will he stay the Watcher, only observing the triumphs and tragedies? Will there ever be a story that forces his hand?"
Will the Watcher decide to bring the heroes from different realities together to prevent the destruction of them all, or will he merely observe while the characters find some other way to handle the situation ... if they can? Tune in to the season finale of "What If...?" on September 29 to see how the story wraps up.