It was no coincidence that Disney Plus held off on debuting Marvel’s What If…? until after the Season 1 finale of Loki blew the doors to the multiverse wide open, because otherwise, the debates would rage about whether the cinematic universe’s first animated series was official canon.
Thanks to the lengthy monologue delivered by Jonathan Majors’ He Who Remains, we know that it is, with the Watcher even handily outlining during each episode that the events we’re about to see unfold take place in an alternate reality from the one launched with Iron Man back in 2008.
That doesn’t mean we won’t see the timelines cross-pollinate in the future, though, with several What If…? alumni regularly touted to make the jump into live-action, but creator and lead writer A.C. Bradley was quick to pour cold water on the notion of any Avengers teases in tomorrow’s Season 1 closer, as revealed in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“We’re not a show that’s designed to set up Avengers 5. It’s supposed to be just about entertainment and what these heroes mean to us. When I took the job, one of my rules was let’s be free. We’re in the multiverse, we should be as free as can be and go and run into the wild, into the stories the movies will never do, into the stories the TV shows will never do, and show both Disney and the fans all the possibilities of these characters.”
We’re all expecting the Guardians of the Multiverse to form and combat the threat of the Vision/Ultron hybrid, which is more than an acceptable compromise. We’re getting plenty of Avengers teases throughout Phase Four, as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings made abundantly clear, so Marvel’s What If…? is much better standing on its own two multiversal feet for the time being.