The Marvel Cinematic Universe is always getting bigger. Whether it be through an increase in the number of feature films releasing annually, or the recent expansion into episodic storytelling via a wide-ranging roster of Disney Plus exclusives in live-action and animation, Marvel has plenty of stories to tell—the latest being yesterday’s premiere of Marvel’s What If…?.
The comic book company isn’t going to rest on its laurels despite securing a status as the biggest and most popular franchise in the industry a long time ago, and the Mouse House’s streaming service is the ideal place to start experimenting with different forms of visual and narrative creativity.
A second season of What If…? is already in development, as is Guardians of the Galaxy spinoff I Am Groot. But in a new interview, executive producer Brad Winderbaum teased that the animated plans the studio is cooking up are going to blow the minds of fans everywhere.
“I think if I told you about our animated plans, it would blow your mind. I mean, you’re completely unbounded from any sort of rules, which is both the most exciting and the most daunting thing about it, because then you have to create your own rules. But I mean, it really is, in many ways, the purest interpretation of the imagination of the people behind it. There’s an element of chaos in all things.
There’s an element of chaos in animation. Certainly a major factor in live action. Filmmaking is chaos. And how things don’t go as planned and how you end up ultimately with a whole different set of tools than you thought you had going in. In an animation, kind of get to work with this infinite canvas where anything you want can be achieved. And if you can conceive it, you can do it. If you can dream it, you can do it.”
Obviously Winderbaum wasn’t going to be drawn on too many details or any specifics, given Marvel’s famous penchant for maintaining the thickest layers of security around every project in development. However, he’s completely right in saying that the shackles have effectively been thrown off by the move into animation, which has the capability to tell stories and create worlds that Kevin Feige and his team could never dream or afford to bring into the live-action realm.
Marvel’s What If…? is merely a taster of what’s to come, then, and looking at how the first episode went down with audiences around the world, by the time the first season draws to a close eight weeks from now they’ll be champing at the bit to discover what’s coming next from the MCU’s latest venture into new territory.
