'What If...?' Head Writer Reveals Which Wasp Is Captain Carter’s Avengers Teammate

One could only hope the answer was so easy, but how did it get there?

In the What If…? season 2 episode “What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?”, audiences saw the establishment of the status quo in the life of this alternate super soldier version of Peggy Carter once returned to the 21st century by the Watcher after defeating Ultron last season. We are treated to her leading The Avengers in this world’s version of the Battle of New York. Except she’s not the only difference in team composition. It’s largely the same, except instead of Hulk, we see there’s a Wasp, but their helmet does not retract in that brief onscreen moment. Seeing questions and curiosities arise, head writer A.C. Bradley took to Twitter to address them.

She confirmed that indeed, this was Hope van Dyne (though it’s not stated whether she made the last name switch in this universe) and not her mother Janet as this universe’s Wasp, let alone an original character or anyone outside the family. Bradley even detailed how this came to be: "Since Captain Carter — a woman — ended WW2, the feminist movement occurred immediately after the war. This had a ripple effect across society leading to more female SHIELD agents, heroes, & women in positions of authority. Since Peggy Carter wasn’t around to found SHIELD, that responsibility fell to Hope’s parents, Hank and Janet… Bucky, and his good friend, Howard Stark. All this [led] to Hope taking on the Wasp mantle earlier." Wasp is widely known to have been an original Avenger in the comics with Ant-Man, Iron Man, Thor and Hulk.

Bucky himself was shown to have never been captured by HYDRA and became the properly-aged US Secretary of State, or as Bradley put it, a "Jimmy Carter-esque elder statesman.” This also means he never kills the Stark parents, allowing Howard and Tony’s relationship to be closer and more loving. Tony with Bruce Banner meanwhile are "forever the mad genius science bros", seemingly implying whatever stressors lead to the Hulk and otherwise invoke them after the change don’t exist. Finally, Captain Carter’s equivalent project to Rogers was a musical biopic, but not a Broadway play…yet.

Thursday’s What If…? episode is “What If…Hela Found the Ten Rings?”. It sees Odin banish Hela to Earth, more specifically ancient China, instead of locking her up in Hell for eternity, and coming upon the entire organization, including Wenwu. What If…? season 2 will continue to roll out on Disney+ through Saturday.

Source: Comic Book Resources, A.C. Bradley