Marvel’s What If…? Is Multiverse Canon! So What Does That Mean for Other Marvel Properties?

As we’re gearing up for Marvel’s What If…?, we’re learning more and more about the show in general and how it will play into the Marvel Cinematic Universe at large. The animated Disney+ show will ask audiences to ponder the idea of things like what if T’Challa were Star Lord, or what if it were Peggy Carter who ended up getting the super-soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers.

Talking to IGN, head writer AC Bradley had this to say about whether or not the series applies to the MCU in general: “The events of What If…? are canon. It’s part of the MCU multiverse. The multiverse is here. It is real, and it is absolutely fantastic, people.”

What this information does do is beg the question: What about the other Marvel shows? I’m not talking about anything on Disney+ or anything from years prior to the Marvel Cinematic Universe taking over the comic book world. I’m talking exclusively about shows like Agent Carter or Daredevil or Runaways that existed at the same time as the MCU but had tenuous links to the Marvel movies at best?

Will they be explained away as alternate universes, or integrated into the main MCU continuity? Will we ever see Daisy Johnson show up as a member of S.W.O.R.D.? Does this mean that the lack of the Defenders showing up to help in the movies will be explained away with alternate universes? If Matt Murdock shows up to help Peter Parker, will it be in the mainline MCU or another part of the multiverse? I want to know the overall connectivity of these shows and how they’ll relate to the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward, especially if What If…? poses these questions and counts them as canon in the overall multiverse of the MCU.

What’s also exciting about this show is that executive producer Brad Winderbaum revealed that the series needed a hero who wasn’t more important than anyone else but still the through-line of the series, and the creative team behind What If…? decided on none other than Captain Carter herself! “Not more important than the rest, but [someone who] had a strong relationship with the Watcher—who was our driving force behind the series—and that’s Captain Carter.”

Much like the rest of the Disney+ series, we’re getting a deeper look into these characters who have also sort of been on the sidelines of the greater MCU. Now, we get to explore the multiverse and all its wonders while still getting a look at some of our favorite characters and what could be with their lives if things went a bit differently.

I love that Loki gave us the multiverse (even though I thought it was going to be Wanda Maximoff). I love that we now get to explore this world of heroes and the infinite possibilities of characters and storylines, and I can’t wait to see who Marvel’s What If…? continues to set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the future for Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and beyond!

(image: Marvel Entertainment)

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