Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been treated to a wide array of content this year, from blockbuster movies to a wide variety of Disney+ TV shows. The latest series to air was What If…?, the franchise’s first official animated series, and it had a mind-bending approach to canon that took audiences some time to dissect. For those who have been wanting an even more in-depth look at the series, Disney+ has you covered, as a new What If…? episode of Marvel Studios Assembled documentary series has now debuted on the platform. You can check out the trailer for the documentary episode below.
Previous episodes of Marvel Studios Assembled have gone behind-the-scenes of the year’s MCU installments — WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and Black Widow.
What If…? explores pivotal moments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and turns them on their head, leading the audience into uncharted territory. The series featured an ensemble of returning voice actors from the MCU, as well as Jeffrey Wright as Uatu the Watcher.
“The Watcher was designed to almost be us,” What If…? head writer A.C. Bradley explained in an exclusive interview with ComicBook.com shortly after the Season 1 finale. “He’s us, the audience. He’s us, the watchers, as we’ve been watching the MCU grow and expand these last almost-14 years now. And then even for some of these older folks who grew up reading the comic books, reading these universes. So the whole idea of The Watcher was that as these stories continue, he steps more and more closer, he becomes more real to us, because these stories become so much more to him. They become his language, his cultural touchstones, the way it has for our entire society. And these heroes become, in a way, his friends. He needs to save the multiverse because he can’t let this go. He breaks his oath because they matter so much. Something finally matters so much to him that he’s forced to break his oath.”
“And that was pulling from the comic books,” Bradley continued. “In the comic books The Watcher is notorious for saying he won’t intervene, and then when he does, it’s always for something huge. He doesn’t intervene because Reed Richards’ car broke down. He intervenes because something huge is coming on the horizon. We just had to figure out what that would be in the Marvel multiverse, and that was the idea of playing with Ultron, who is such a great villain. And now, thanks to Phase Four, he could have the Infinity Gauntlet. You marry Ultron with the Infinity Gauntlet and you have utter devastation.”
As mentioned above, Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of What If…? is now available to stream exclusively on Disney+.