'What If…?' Unveils Episode Titles, Schedule For Hollywood Ending
Six stories, a two part finale, and then poof, what if it’s gone?
Watch out because here it comes. This Sunday begins the final week of episodes for Marvel Animation’s What If…? as it rolls out its eight episodes of its third and final season starting December 22 on Disney+. And right on time from last year’s second season, we now have the season’s episode titles and the order in which they’ll be airing, a privilege previously given to X-Men ‘97, Agatha All Along, and even Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
The season kicks off with “What If…The Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?”. It probably connects the rather standard-looking Hulk and his scream seen in the promotional material so far, but even if it isn’t, this story is easily one of the top-showcased episodes of the season, with a couple of full clips released along with snippets from stills, the sizzle reel and fuller trailers. The recently-released clip unveiled a horde of Gamma Mutants that the Mech Avengers will face, and don’t look as clean as Hulk. Who knows what the connections will be. Monday, December 23 will premiere “What If…Agatha Went to Hollywood?” where we know she will strike up some sort of friendship with Kingo, the Eternal who debuted in, well Eternals and revealed (not publicly of course) that he is the entirety of his own acting dynasty. The punted Red Guardian-Winter Soldier romp is coming Christmas Eve, December 24, and it turns out it was already known. It is indeed “What If…Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier?”, as was reported last year. It could probably rival the Mech Avengers episode for how much we’ve seen of it. Christmas Day brings the lighter affair of revisiting Party Thor world with the Howard the Duck and Darcy Lewis wedding adventure “What If… Howard the Duck Got Hitched?”, which we saw quite a bit of in the trailer.
The back half of the season kicks off the next day, December 26, with “What If…The Emergence Destroyed The Earth?” which probably has the least recognizable scenes in the trailer to glean that context from. It also reads “What if the Eternals failed?”, making for a different doomsday scenario than the first season’s “What If…Ultron Won?”. This could end up being a fun watch to come upon trailer scenes completely by surprise. On Friday, December 27, “What If…1872?” evokes the time warpiness of "What If... the Avengers Assembled in 1602?" and is very likely the Cowboy Shang-Chi and Cowgirl Kate Bishop teamup episode. And finally, our two-part finale. December 28’s “What If…The Watcher Disappeared?” where The Watcher’s interventions have caught up with him. Whether this is mid-proceedings or after, December 29’s series finale is “What If…What If?” as if the repetition is an existential panic, as the ramifications hit the multiverse after an unfavorable sentencing, and the heroes fight to save it. Or something along those lines.
What If…?’s final season of 8 episodes are written by Matthew Chauncey, who co-executive produces, Ryan Little, and A.C. Bradley. The series’s other executive producers are Kevin Feige and Louis D’Esposito, with co-executive producer Chauncey, and producers Danielle Costa, Carrie Wassenaar, and Alex Scharf.
