The Marvel Cinematic Universe simply can’t be stopped, and after releasing no new content for the first time ever during 2020 as the pandemic turned both the release calendar and the industry at large into a shadow of its former self, the world’s biggest and most commercially successful franchise is back in a huge way this year.
It’s only the second week of August, but we’ve already seen Disney Plus exclusives WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki dominate both the headlines and the cultural conversation, while Black Widow is still in the news over a month after it hit theaters and Premier Access simultaneously, albeit not for entirely positive reasons.
Marvel’s What If…? has premiered today, marking the MCU’s first canonical animated project. Thanks to Jeffrey Wright’s Watcher and the syrupy smooth tones of his narration, we know that all of the stories take place in various pockets of the multiverse, following on nicely from the events of the Loki Season 1 finale.
As you can see from the reactions below, it would appear as though a lot of MCU fans fired up the Mouse House’s streaming service almost as soon as they woke up to devour Marvel’s What If…?.
There’s only nine episodes in the first season as opposed to the ten that were initially announced, but another batch of episodes is already in development and Marvel Animation Studios could be in the offing to keep everything in-house. Marvel’s What If…? delivers exactly what the people want to see, reinventing familiar stories with surprising twists and turns, all packed full of Easter Eggs, references and visual cues to the MCU’s long and illustrious thirteen-year history.