Some images have leaked online this week showing concept art from Marvel’s upcoming What If…? series, one of which features the distinctive form of the Iron Man armor outfitted with some heavy artillery.
The poor quality of the pics is probably on account of photography being prohibited where they were displayed and were instead surreptitiously taken using a phone’s camera, but the modified shape of the Iron Man armor is nevertheless easy to make out and suggests that whatever the character is getting up to, it will involve a lot of destruction.
Whether or not Tony Stark will feature in the series has been a point of contention. It was seemingly confirmed by Jeff Goldblum, who stated back in November that Robert Downey Jr. would be voicing Stark in an episode of the alt-reality anthology alongside himself as the Grandmaster and Taika Waititi as Korg. But it was denied a week later by an anonymous insider, though this was widely believed to just be Disney covering itself after something it didn’t want leaked found its way out.
If the episode in question does indeed feature Stark somehow landing on Sakaar though, then the environment would provide ample opportunity for the tech genius to make battle-ready modifications to his suit. After all, since the original MK I armor was built IN A CAVE!!! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!!, then it’s not outwith the realms of possibility that Stark could fashion rudimentary weaponry from the mountains of technological junk with which the planet is littered.
In any case, the images make it clear that Marvel’s What If…? will feature Iron Man one way or another, although whether it will be Stark in the armor or Downey Jr. being the one to voice him remains to be seen. Regardless, it seems that the MCU’s original hero will be getting at least one more outing before being retired.