Every Marvel movie and show from Phase 4, ranked worst to best
By Daniel Roman
11. What If?
The animated series What If? is the first time we truly got a glimpse at just how wild the possibilities of the Multiverse Saga are. What if Hank Pym went on a murderous streak and killed all the Avengers before they ever had a chance to fight Thanos? What if T’Challa were abducted by the Ravagers instead of Peter Quill? What if the MCU’s Earth was hit with a zombie plague, which turned its greatest heroes into shambling superpowered horrors?
What If? asks all these questions and more, then plays them out for us in fascinating (and often gruesome) detail. It may be one of the darkest parts of Phase 4, because a lot of those stories had less-than-happy endings. But the concept behind the thing, and the execution, are never anything less than perfect.
While each episode of What If? tells its own unique tale, the real cherry on top is that the final two episodes bring all those alternate heroes together for an Avengers-style team up to save the multiverse. In one alternate dimension, Ultron defeats the Avengers, going on to gather all the Infinity Stones and becoming the most powerful being in the galaxy. He shatters the walls of the multiverse and attacks the mysterious Watcher, who had been serving as the series’ narrator. In that moment, the Watcher becomes a much more active participant in the story, recruiting Earth’s greatest heroes from across the multiverse to combat the deranged android.
The Guardians of the Multiverse face-off against Ultron is epic in the extreme, and because What If? is an animated series, the battle is able to be as big and flashy as it wants without concern for blowing up the budget.
Throughout Phase 4, we saw live-action versions of a few of the biggest characters from What If…?, like Captain Carter and evil Doctor Strange. The influence of What If? on the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe wasn’t immediately apparent, but at this point it is now an essential watch for anyone who wants to get the full MCU experience.
