Marvel’s creative brainstorming exercise — a.k.a. the wildly inventive and at times unhinged (in the best way!) animated series What If…? — is sadly coming to an end.
The Disney+ MCU anthology series that explores alternate versions of events from major Marvel movies begins its third and final season on Dec. 22, with new episodes rolling out daily until the series finale on Dec. 29. And Marvel TV boss Brad Winderbaum calls the eight-episode swan song “very bittersweet” as Jeffrey Wright‘s all-seeing narrator, Uatu the Watcher, brings the entire story to a “melancholy” end.
Below, Winderbaum reveals what fans can expect from the final season of What If…?, why now was the right time to end the show, and how next year’s animated event series Marvel Zombies connects to the season 1 zombie episode.
‘What If…?’. Marvel
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why end What If…? after this season?
BRAD WINDERBAUM: There are bigger universe reasons to culminate it now. If you’re a fan of the overall MCU, you’ll notice that the first season premiered after Loki season 1, when the Sacred Timeline blossomed into a multiverse and all of a sudden all these new stories emerged. That was when we started telling those stories in What If…? And at the end of season 2, when the Watcher takes Peggy to look out at the multiverse, it’s taken the form of the tree of stories that Loki sits in the middle of at the end of Loki season 2. So the culmination of season 3 and of the series itself does fit in to the overall MCU tapestry in that way. That being said, there’s infinite stories to tell with What If…?, and time will tell whether we make more. But for now it is, I think, a beautiful way to end this era and to culminate the story of the Watcher.
So there’s a possibility this show could still return in the future?
I hope so.
Was it always the plan to end What If…? after three seasons, or did that decision come about later as the MCU evolved?
It came about organically as the rest of the MCU was coming together and the Multiverse Saga was starting to find its conclusion. It just feels like the right time. And I’ll say this, our creative team led by Bryan Andrews, our creator and director of What If…?, is continuing in Marvel Zombies, which comes out Oct. 3. If you remember that zombies episode from season 1, that is very much like the part 1 prologue for this giant, epic event that is coming out next year.
Do people need to go back and rewatch that episode before seeing Marvel Zombies?
Yeah, definitely. Certainly before next October I would give that a rewatch.
Does Marvel Zombies pick up directly from the episode of What If…? How does that episode set up the new series?
It ties right in. It is the same universe. If you’ve never seen that episode of What If…? you do come at the universe from a different angle. So you could just watch the four episodes of Marvel Zombies coming in completely blind because it does tell its own story. But if you do know that episode of What If…? and what happens in it, it does connect entirely to that episode.
Zombie Captain America in ‘What If…?’ season 1. Marvel
Are you expanding any other episodes into spinoff projects?
That’s a great question. There are certainly characters that I would want to revisit. Kahhori, I love that episode so much from season 2, and she comes back in season 3. I think she’s just such an inspiring, cool character and really has a great charisma and presence on screen. And then there’s a new character named Byrdie voiced by Natasha Lyonne this season that I would love to see more of in the future as well.
How does this final season fit into the larger MCU?
I can’t really answer that specifically, but I will say that it does fit into the saga as we enter the third act of the saga. What If…? season 3 does set the table in a lot of ways.
Does the series finale end on a cliffhanger, or will it provide total closure for fans?
I think What If…? should feel like a warm blanket. It’s a holiday release, it’s a new one every morning, it’s a little gift you get as you’re home with your family over the holidays to watch while you’re drinking your morning coffee or hot chocolate. And it has that joy and that warmth and that glow of the season, because these characters are very human and they are at times super-funny, but at times have to really deal with some life lessons. And so there’s a sense of melancholy. The ending is both happy and sad. And certainly for me, having worked on this for so long and for this being the show that launched the studio, it is very bittersweet.
While each episode tackles a wildly different story, what can you reveal about the main serialized arc we’ll see throughout the entire season?
It’s mostly an anthology with a little bit of a serialized chaser, and this season — and this series overall — you could look at as an examination of the Watcher. This guy was happy being an introverted spectator of the world around him but takes a chance and steps out of his comfort zone and enters the stories of the people he loves, the people he respects. And that comes at a cost, and the season deals with that cost.
‘What If…?’. Marvel Studios
Did you always know how this show would end?
There wasn’t an idea for how it would end, but there certainly was an idea that in some way this would be a story about the Watcher. He’s not just a narrator, he’s not just a spectator. He is also a rebel in his own way. He is a rule-breaker and a guy trying to reconcile what he is supposed to do with what he wants to do. And that was very interesting to us. And certainly when it came time to culminate the story, that became the thing that drove us. It has a very satisfying final two episodes. I find them very emotional to watch if you love the characters and you’re following the story of the Watcher — he does represent in some ways what it means to be a fan and how you interact with the material that you love. I think that the ending is very fun but very sad, very satisfying in all the ways.
What episodic stories are you most excited for fans to see this season?
The Shang-Chi Western episode with Kate Bishop is so awesome, and really leans into that genre in such a fun way. The Mech Avengers episode, I mean, being a child of the ’80s, watching all that Voltron, that was a dream come true to be able to play with those toys. Old-timey Hollywood, Dominic Cooper coming back as Howard Stark, doing his Howard Hughes directing thing, is so much fun. There’s surprises in all of them, but the “Howard [the Duck] Got Hitched” [episode], you don’t expect that episode to go where it goes. I mean, by the end, especially as a parent, it hits pretty hard. And Kathryn Hahn reprising the icon that is Agatha — really, there’s not an episode in the bunch that I wouldn’t watch a thousand times over. And believe me, I have, being in those edit rooms. So I’m excited for the world to see it now.
Which MCU actor will surprise fans the most with what they did for What If…? this season?
Dominique [Thorne] is back as Riri Williams, and that’s a dystopian episode in a world that is run by this tyrant version of Mysterio, and she’s really incredible in that story. I think people are going to be surprised by that. It’s great to have Hailee [Steinfeld] playing Kate Bishop again. And Sebastian Stan is just insanely cool and able to show so many dimensions of Bucky. David Harbour, he’s just so fun as that character [Red Guardian]. You’re like, “More please.” And Anthony Mackie as Captain America leading the Mech Avengers, he’s great. And that episode says so much, it’s such an amazing pilot to the season. Walton Goggins coming back and doing his character from Ant-Man and the Wasp, he’s so good that you start recontextualizing [his] live-action appearances actually, and realizing how incredible he was in his original appearance. There’s just really too many to even mention, but those are just a few. I’ll say this: When Kathryn saw the musical numbers in the “Agatha Went to Hollywood” episode, she was like, “We have to do this in live action.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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