Ever since Jeffrey Wright’s all-seeing cosmic custodian made his MCU debut in What If…? season one, Marvel fans have wondered whether the Watcher could ever appear elsewhere in the franchise. That question has now been answered thanks to the character’s brief cameo in the new trailer for I Am Groot season two, the miniseries of shorts featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy’s Baby Groot.
Given that I Am Groot episodes only last a few minutes each, Wright’s role in the show was assumed to be a mere fan-pleasing blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kind of deal. However, scooper Alex P. is claiming that the Watcher’s appearance will be a lot more proactive than we were anticipating. When asked if the Watcher would only be on screen “for one second,” the scooper shared: “No. He will have an active supporting role in the show across 5 dimensions.”
Honestly, that statement leaves us more confused than we were before, as it’s currently unclear what the Watcher’s fifth-dimensional impact on I Am Groot means. It seems, however, that the Watcher might be looking over the misadventures of the adorable infant Flora Colossus throughout the next batch of six episodes. Could Groot even interact with the Watcher, being the first Earth-616 character to do so?
Marvel was almost certainly playing the long game when it introduced the Watcher in What If…?, so he was always going to have a bigger role to play in proceedings outside of the animated series, which itself returns for a second season in the near future. As this is just rumored information, he could well only have a brief role in I Am Groot season two, hitting Disney Plus on Sep. 6, but something tells us he’ll crossover into other MCU movies and shows before too long.