Cap’s In The Caps: New 'What If…?' Season 3 Images Feature Debut Of Captain America Sam Wilson

Multiverses on your left, multiverses on your right, Sam Wilson will finally be there

It’s been a long time coming, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s newest Captain America, Sam Wilson is finally being strewn across the multiverse of possibilities in the third season of animated series What If…?. Marvel, across several social media accounts including those of the studio and the show, released four images from that highly-anticipated season. It was in celebration and gratitude of the viewership of the second, which was released from December 22 to 30.

Specific viewership numbers aren’t available yet, but the tweet read “From all of us at Marvel Studios, THANK YOU for watching season 2 of #WhatIf and joining us on this journey across time…space…reality. We’re excited to share this early look at some of the endless possibilities we’ll explore together in season 3 of What If…?” Two images were from Captain America Sam’s episode: One has him standing inside a SHIELD building with a suited up Monica Rambeau in her own first starring episode and someone else, while the second image features their mechs. How they attain their giant robots or how they’re used? Well it’s just these images, of course we don’t know. It’s also not yet confirmed whether his actor Anthony Mackie will be voicing his character for the series, but circumstances say it’s expected.

While What If…?’s signature super soldier has been Peggy Carter in a universe where she goes in instead of Steve Rogers, the series has showcased several where Rogers still took on the serum, the first being one where he’s only discovered in the ice after Hank Pym’s revenge spree, one where’s zombified during the Thor Ragnarok-Avengers: Infinity War span (which features the sole Sam variant, of course still Falcon, so far in the series’s first two seasons, and he’s already zombified), one where Tony disappears in space during The Avengers, one with a Christmas attack on Avengers Tower, and one where a strike of the Time Stone during Infinity War lands him in 1602. But again, there’s been very little Sam Wilson, even as Falcon. As far as why it took so long is best explained by What If…?’s head writer A. C. Bradley: Season 2 was being written during COVID, when live action production, such as for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier where eventually Sam embraced the mantle in its finale once it could finally be filmed, was completely shut down. “Scripts were being re-written because of other things…. So, we couldn’t touch it because … you let the character live in live-action first and then go play in the multiverse.” The series would end up airing in March and April 2021, preceding What If…?’s first season by 4 months, having an August premiere. It should also be noted that this will not be Wilson’s animated Captain America debut, with a silent cameo in the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur episode "Today, I Am a Woman", and an appearance in in Lego Marvel Avengers: Code Red, where he’s voiced by Bumper Robinson, who has voiced previous iterations of the character. Wilson’s first film with the mantle, Captain America: Brave New World, will be released on February 14, 2025.

The second pair of images is more from “What If…Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier?”, the punted season 2 episode we got a full clip of when the season was just about finished airing. While the clip was clearly from an early part of the episode, the two stills feature Alexei fully suited up as Red Guardian. One looking out from a building with Bucky by his side, and one where he’s held upside down by Giant-Man (likely Hank Pym considering the implied time period).

Credit: Marvel Studios

What If…?’s two released seasons are available on Disney+, but it is still unknown whether season 3 is part of Marvel Studios’s 2024 animation slate or if it’s already being targeted for next year instead.

Sources: Marvel Studios, TVLine, ComicBook