Marvel’s What If..? promises to be a unique chapter in the MCU for multiple reasons. It’s the franchise’s first official animated entry, it’s an anthology series and each episode will explore a different reality, taking us outside of the main timeline for the first time. There’s so much potential to expand a fully-fledged animated side of the MCU out of this show, then. And, according to a new report, it’s possible that Spider-Man could be the key.
Geekosity is claiming that Marvel is in early development on a Spider-Man animated series that will follow What If…?. The outlet’s sources stress that this Spidey project will not be connected to the anthology show in terms of storytelling, but it will inherit the same high-quality animation and will visually be a cut above Disney’s recent Spidey animated programming for younger fans. This project is apparently only in the discussion stages right now.
This Spider-Man series will be set in the MCU, we’re told, although it won’t feature villains from the movies. So presumably the intention is to expand the wallcrawler’s mythos by bringing in other iconic antagonists from the comics who’ve yet to be seen in the films. What’s more, it’s said to be “unlikely” that Tom Holland will reprise his role as Peter Parker. This follows on from Holland being replaced in What If…?
Alongside Holland, other notable MCU stars who won’t be back for the animated anthology include Chris Evans, Brie Larson and Robert Downey Jr. What If…? will establish that it’s possible for different actors to play the Avengers and for the project to still be counted as canon. So this could be how Marvel will grow out its animation division, apparently starting with a new Spider-Man show.
While we wait to see if anything comes of this, What If…? premieres Wednesday, August 11th on Disney Plus.