As traumatic as many episodes of Marvel’s What…If? are, it apparently pales in comparison to the brutality left on the cutting room floor, ComicBook reports.
The show takes a reimagining of classic Marvel Cinematic Universe characters and scenarios and remixes them, often to tragic results. In the series, we’ve seen the MCU get taken over by zombies, the Avengers getting assassinated one by one, and familiar heroes being present in new ones, such as Captain Carter and Black Panther as Star Boy.
But in one particularly gut-wrenching episode, we saw a scenario in which the benevolent sorcerer Dr. Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, adopt the dark side of magic in order to resurrect his lost love, Christina.
In that episode, an evil version of Dr. Strange gets separated by the Ancient One from the good side, creating Strange Supreme. In the original episode, Strange Supreme tops off his 18-course meal of interdimensional monsters by absorbing the good Strange in a bid to wield enough power to bring someone back from the dead.
However, the scene might have played out very differently if it ended being produced as originally written, with Strange Supreme getting downright bloody in his altercation with his good side.
“Originally in the script, regular Strange, his death was a lot more gruesome…He was actually beaten to death by the Eye of Agamotto. Then when the storyboard artist took it over, they were like, ‘We’re going to make this a little bit more visual and fantastical instead of horrifically violent.’ Because I went too dark. But this was our chance to be big comic book dorks and show the different sides and have some fun. And the original What If…? comic books were notorious for having tragic endings and twist endings which I wanted to play with. And we were free to go wherever we wanted,” showrunner A.C. Bradley told Entertainment Weekly.
What do you think is in store for the What If…? finale that airs on Disney Plus this Wednesday, October 6th?
