Marvel’s What if…? series has me thinking, ‘What if…?’
The series wasted its potential by taking a fun concept and slowly losing its touch

Marvels' What If...? series has three seasons. (Chelsea Lai)

Marvel’s What if…? series wrapped up its third and final season — and left me with the same feeling it’s named after.
With eight episodes in the last season, and 26 episodes in total, the series could’ve done so much more with the concept. No, actually, because the series is about infinite possibilities, it could’ve genuinely gone on forever if the ones running the show knew what they were working with.
I haven’t watched What if…? since the end of the first season, and I don’t plan to because streaming plans for Disney+ are expensive for broke university students like myself. However, it seems like I haven’t missed out on too much.
Going off of the episodes I did watch, there were some interesting concepts, such as Peggy Carter becoming Captain Carter as the first Avenger instead of Captain America, Doctor Strange destroying his universe trying to save his romantic interest, and Ultron defeating the Avengers. But there are some prompts, like Thor and Loki not being brothers, Happy Hogan saving a Christmas party, and more continuations on previous episodes, which could’ve been left to the imagination.
Speaking of continuations of previous storylines, while I wouldn’t say it was the main problem, not all episodes in the series were left as one-off looks into alternate universes, which was sort of an awkward experience.
This seemed to be a recurring theme for all three seasons of the series, where most of the heroes showcased in Season 1 came together to take down the previously mentioned Ultron who defeated the Avengers. It happened again when Captain Carter battled the warped Doctor Strange who destroyed his universe, stopping him from trying to restore it.
I guess someone thought the third time was the charm for overarching storylines in this type of series to work, because a certain captain returned again to help save the multiverse in the final season.
Not a big note, but I mentioned the last season has eight episodes. The other two seasons had nine episodes each, which I instantly found a bit odd when looking into the series. Whether it’s
because of production issues, lack of interest, or something unknown, it felt like there was no reason to not have the usual nine episodes in the final season.
During a time when Marvel is still struggling to replicate the success it had during the late 2000s and all of the 2010s, the What If…? series could’ve been reliable intellectual property for the franchise. This would have been especially beneficial because there’s limited windows to produce certain storylines, be it in a blockbuster movie or a Disney+ series, due to varying circumstances.
Instead, we got something that branches away from what viewers thought they’d be seeing — that being alternative takes from iconic events in Marvel mythos — and what comes off as a glorified Captain Carter franchise. At least, that’s what the series felt like to me.
While I don’t follow Marvel as much anymore due to life getting in the way, I hope the series comes back with more. It would definitely need plenty of reworking to be more enjoyable and consistent, if it does return.