Alt-Heroes Familiar And New Face A Watcher Storm In 'What If…?' Final Season Trailer
The eight-episode season rolls out daily starting December 22 on Disney+
In the 11 months since Marvel Animation’s What If…? season 2 ran, we’ve managed to see quite a bit from season 3, especially from the episode featuring a far sooner and intimate teamup (as in not cluttered by other teammates) between Alexei Shostakov and Bucky Barnes aka Red Guardian and the Winter Soldier, as well as the Mech Avengers team of Sam Wilson Captain America, Moon Knight, and Monica Rambeau (moniker TBC). It’s also been reiterated over and over again that this will be the final season of the series despite the endless storytelling potential and possibilities with the multiverse. Now Disney+ and Marvel have released the trailer, which surprisingly reveals just how the finality could come about.
The trailer opens with shots of Sam and Monica, resurrected Vision, Nebula and the Guardians of the Galaxy (plus Korg), some Riri Williams in a prototype suit, Bucky and Alexei, and Agatha Harkness adorned in bright white and later seen with Kingo but the latter is not before The Watcher says “let’s begin”. Witness the season that ends it all. Cowboy Shang-Chi wrangles Kate Bishop as his partner into some true grit that will be familiar ground if Hailee Steinfeld reprises her role. A grouping of Wong, Valkyrie, Okoye, and someone that even Charlie Schneider of Emergency Awesome couldn’t recognize. It was a personal recognition failure that kind of made me push back writing this as I sought answers. While not immediately revealed, they are the team that will be handling what’s going on with the resurrected Vision (or however he achieves his white form in this universe), with light based armors. SHIELD, including Fury and Coulson, seemingly teleports with the Bifrost. Party Thor world Howard and Darcy, who married in all the debauchery might be back, but regardless it’s some version of the pair flying a ship. Glimpses of Dormammu, Zeus, Yondu, Kaecillius, and Bruce as the Hulk are seen as well. Sam’s Avengers team might have 8 members, with Alexei accompanying Melina, and the mech, known as Avenger, seems to be powered by the Ten Rings. The big mic drop comes when several Watchers, purportedly led by who should be Aron appear, saying “This is where your story ends.” The very thing that may end the series is the Watcher who serves as narrator finding themselves being held accountable for breaking their oath back at the end of season 1 to stop Ultron. We also saw him maintain that mentorship friendship with Captain Carter during season 2. The Celestials and Mysterio will also be seen, as can a completely original hero called Byrdie. Adorned in a sleek training suit and taking flight with feathery wings, she has eye beams. Strangely enough she is voiced by Natasha Lyonne, who is set to appear in a yet-to-be-announced role in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. It’s probably closest to Linda Cardellini as Laura Barton and Lylla from Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 but in a reverse. The trailer ends with Captain Carter and Kahhori needing backup, and so the first known X-Men mutant of the series, Storm arrives, and she’s goddess of thunder, wielding Mjolnir in whatever reality she’s from. She’s voiced by Alison Sealy-Smith, her voice actress from X-Men ‘97 and most of the Fox Kids series that preceded it. It is unlikely that this version of Storm is a fork specifically of that universe’s version as it’s never been formally hinted. It’s said she will be part of the two-part finale.
“It takes us to places that you’d never expect. It goes beyond the first two seasons in its exploration of the multiverse,” Marvel Television head Brad Winderbaum said of the season. “It pulls in characters that are very unexpected, and has what I think is an extremely moving and very fulfilling culmination for Uatu the Watcher.”
In addition to Sealy-Smith, the list of reprisals for the season are in the dozens. Some return from previous seasons, some are just getting in the game now. It has Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier (in at least one reality), David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner Hulk, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Seth Green as Howard the Duck, Laurence Fishburne as Bill Foster, Dominique Thorne as Ironheart, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Devery Jacobs as Kahhori, Michael Rooker as Yondu, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, James D’Arcy as human Jarvis, Josh Brolin as Thanos, Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight, Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent John Walker, Walton Goggins as Sonny Burch, Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, appearing once again in a story where he can’t get beyond Loki, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter, Meng’er Zhang as Xu Xialing, Taika Waititi as Korg, Rachel House as Topaz, Kat Dennings as Darcy, Ross Marquand getting to unite all of his Marvel Studios roles in a single production for the first time: Red Skull, Infinity Ultron, Professor X, Apocalypse, and Doctor Doom, Gene Farber as Vasily Karpov, the Hydra agent from Captain America: Civil War, Hamish Parkinson as Beerbot 5000 (from Thor: Ragnarok, in case it didn’t ring a bell), Tom Vaughn Lawlor as Ebony Maw, and David Kaye as Celestial Arishem the Judge. I thought I had brought up before that America Ferrera was voicing Ranger Morales in the Bucky/Alexei teamup story, but other new cast members in addition to Lyonne include Jason Isaacs, D. C. Douglas, and Darin De Paul as the confronting Watchers named the Eminence, the Incarnate, and the Executioner, respectively.
The season’s episodes are directed by Bryan Andrews and Stephan Franck and are written by Matthew Chauncey, Ryan Little and A.C. Bradley. Andrews and Winderbaum executive produce with Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, and Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, with co-executive producer Chauncey, and producers Danielle Costa, Carrie Wassenaar and Alex Scharf. The Marvel Television sizzle reel revealed that What If…?’s third and final season will premiere on December 22, leading to suspicion that like with the second season, which started on that date last year, it would be another round of daily episode rollouts surrounding Christmas. The trailer confirmed such. This time, it’s just 8 episodes, leading to a very round 26-episode run for the series, at least in terms of standard episode orders. As such the series finale will air on December 29.
Sources: Variety, The Direct, Nexus Point News, Comic Book Movie, Murphy’s Multiverse