Even if What If…? barely makes a dent in the larger MCU, it does give us die-hard Marvel fans something to look forward to when it not only brings back long-forgotten characters, but also the actors who voiced them.
But while this was possible with the recent comebacks like Bill Foster and Justin Hammer (yep, he didn’t just twist his thumb around in this alternate reality), not every actor is willing to return to the Marvel universe – even temporarily – to voice their respective characters.
Spoilers ahead from What If…? season 2 episode 3, “What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?
Yes, that sinking feeling in your stomach is right – I am talking about the Marvel legends who have hung up their respective superhero suits and are yet to look back at the characters they made unforgettable. Even though Scarlett Johansson keeps hinting that she might return to the MCU one day, her Black Widow is still being voiced by actress Lake Bell in the Marvel series.
This clearly means that if you felt like you heard Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. as Captain America and Iron Man in What If…? season 2’s episode 3, then it is nothing more than a fever dream as the duo has underlined and then bolded the line again by repeating how they are done with the franchise.
Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr.’s decision made space for Josh Keaton and Mick Wingert
While Evans and Downey are not the only Marvel actors who chose to not voice their characters in What If…? finding someone who can imitate their likeness as Steve and Tony was indeed a big task. But, in light of everything Marvel has been doing wrong since Endgame and how exceptionally accurate Keaton and Wingert sound as the two Avengers, we will have to give it to the studio on picking the right actors for the important roles.
Unless you are planning to binge-watch What If…? season 2 in one go, you have recently heard their voices in the third episode as Tony, Steve, and the rest of the Avengers banded together to bring down Justin Hammer and ended his attempt to take over Avengers tower in an alternate reality. This is a far better setup in which we see the beloved heroes back as in season 1, when Keaton and Wingert first voiced Steve and Tony in the show, the duo were killed by the rogue AI, Ultron, in the episode “What If… Ultron Won?” At least, this time, the only casualties were the bad guys, and Happy being stuck as the Purple Hulk Hogan.
As for the actors, Keaton is a prominent voice actor and already a Marvel mainstay. He has voiced Peter Parker in CW’s animated series, The Spectacular Spider-Man, as well as in many videogames (Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Spider-Man: Edge of Time) along with voicing the supervillain Electro in the 2018 videogame, Marvel’s Spider-Man. He was Green Lantern in the Green Lantern: Animated Series that aired on Cartoon Network and Shiro in Netflix’s Voltron: Legendary Defender. This tiny paragraph doesn’t even begin to cover his massive portfolio.
Like Keaton, Wingert has also been praised for his accurate impression of Downey, but that’s not the only example of his exemplary skills. The actor was brought in to voice Master Po in Kung-Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness to replace Jack Black who originally voiced the character. Needless to say, Wingert did it so well that those who missed out on the news of casting as Po were unable to figure out that it was his voice and not Black’s.
As for his Marvel stint, Wingert has more of an established stay as he has spent a long time voicing Iron Man. Starting with the Avengers Assemble series in 2013, he went on to be Tony Stark in Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Future Avengers, Marvel Rising, etc. Given his streak as the Avenger, his voicing the character in What If…? was a no-brainer.
