Marvel’s What If…? Series Is Bringing Back A Lot Of Dead MCU Characters

Everyone knows that the San Diego Comic-Con is the place to be if you’re excited to hear any upcoming Marvel news, but this year’s offering really took it to another level.

As well as Natalie Portman picking up her hammer as the ‘new’ Thor, Mahershala Ali has been announced as the next Blade, and Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie is officially the franchise’s first LGBTQ+ hero.

Elsewhere, there was a big update on those various Disney+ shows and confirmation of Marvel’s What If…?. Although some people were left uninspired by an animated series based on some obscure Marvel comics, the cast of the cartoon caper should be enough to get you signing up for Disney+ on its own. 

Collider, unveils the full Marvel’s What If…?cast and it’s a who’s who of MCU faces (dead and alive). Alongside notable names like Samuel L. Jackson, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Hemsworth, and Karen Gillen, the deceased characters are definitely something to write home about.

Josh Brolin is back as Thanos, Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Toby Jones as Arnim Zola, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and Michael Rooker as Yondu.

Michael B Jordan Killmonger Black Panther
Disney

Bringing everything together, Westworldand James Bond star Jeffrey Wright will play the all-seeing, all-knowing Watcher. The site reveals what Wright said when he took to the stage at the massive Hall H panel:

“The Watcher is a non-Earthly being who observes all things. He’s watching over the multiverse and occasionally may nor may not intervene with the doings of earthlings, other than that he’s off doing his own things…Today is the 50th Anniversary of the Moonlanding. The Watcher first appears in 63 I think, Fantastic 4, he turns up on the Moon because today’s the 50th anniversary, but the watcher had a crib their ages ago. I’m excited to see where we take it, we could take it anywhere.”

It will be interesting to see how the Captain America storylines will work with Atwell but not Chris Evans. Also, the Guardians of the Galaxy cast is missing the likes of Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana. As for “What If…?” in the world of Marvel comics, the standalone series started in 1977 and represented a number of out-there stories where huge moments in history played out differently.

Spider-Man What If...? Marvel
Marvel

Starting with “What If Spider-Man had Joined the ‘Fantastic Four’?”, other ponderings have included “What if Gwen Stacy had lived?”, “What if Phoenix had not died?”, and “What if Wolverine had killed the Hulk?”. There are plenty of stories to pull from and it’s sure to be quite the talking point.

It’s interesting to note that Marvel’s What If…?sounds a little similar to the Hiddleston-led Lokiseries. The God of Mischief will pick up where he left off in Avengers: Endgame, zooming around with the Tesseract to cause trouble across the history of the cosmos.

Marvel’s What If…?is set to soar onto Disney+ in summer 2021, so there’s (sadly) a bit of a wait before we find out what’s going on.

[Featured Image: Disney]

Words By Tom Chapman