When the Marvel Cinematic Universe first made the jump to episodic projects, we weren’t expecting it to go the distances it did; between such shows as WandaVision, Moon Knight, Werewolf by Night, and now Secret Invasion, the Disney Plus shows have been quite the breath of fresh air.
And arguably the most novel of these endeavors has to be What If…?, the MCU’s anthological foray into animation that saw such situations as the birth of Captain Carter, a zombie apocalypse, and the death of the Avengers at the hands of Hank Pym rear their heads. With a second season due sometime in the near future, there’ll be plenty more where that came from.
Its connection to the rest of the MCU seems rather dubious, but that doesn’t mean that What If…? debutants don’t have a place in the mainline franchise, and the first question mark-tinged name that pops up is The Watcher, a primordial observer of the Marvel multiverse whose eyes we can thank for viewing the many yarns of What If…?.
When asked by ComicBook if he would be taking up the mantle of The Watcher in a live-action capacity, Jeffrey Wright – who loaned his voice to the omniscient being in the series – kept his mouth as shut as any Marvel actor would be expected to, which some would argue all but confirms his eventual involvement somewhere down the line.
In all seriousness, it’s something that we’ll probably be finding out sooner rather than later; with the Multiverse Saga nearly in full swing, we’re encroaching on the perfect time to bring one of Marvel’s premier multiverse observers into the mix, but as for whether or not this would be the same Watcher portrayed by Wright, we’ll just have to see.
What If…? is available to stream on Disney Plus. A second season is due at some point in the future, while a third season is in development.
