Marvel has premiered its latest streaming series on Disney Plus. But, unlike the other three shows the MCU has released this year, What If…? is animated, it’s an anthology series, and since it takes place across the multiverse, its events don’t directly impact the continuity of the films. Like its comic book namesake, What If…? explores hypothetical scenarios involving iconic Marvel characters.
The first episode, “What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?,” now available to watch on the Mouse House’s streaming platform, wonders what would’ve happened if Steve Rogers couldn’t take the Super-Soldier Serum and Peggy Carter took it instead. This is an intriguing setup, and Captain Carter made for an awesome superhero, but at just 33 minutes, it didn’t have enough time to fully realize the potential of that premise.
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The fact that there’s so much going on in just the first episode of What If…? – which, in theory, should be the lightest episode to ease audiences into the new format – is an ominous sign for the future of the series. Head writer A.C. Bradley and her team of scribes have cooked up some fascinating concepts for What If…?, but half an hour might not be enough time to really flesh out these stories and make them feel like they matter.
Half-hour runtimes are easier to digest, but in a series exploring such grand narratives as What If…?’s world-changing nexus events, the writers have to race through plot points. It’s nowhere near enough time to explore all the different avenues of the alternate premise. The What If…? pilot ends when the movie it’s based on ends, with Peggy unexpectedly arriving in the present day and being recruited by Nick Fury to lead the Avengers. But there are so many places that the story could go after that. In Captain America: Civil War, Steve was against signing the Sokovia Accords, but as a government bureaucrat, Peggy might’ve been all for signing them.
It’s possible that the What If…? writers are planning a couple of multi-part storylines with episodes set in the same alternate universe, so fans will get a Battle of New York and a Sokovia Accords disagreement and a last stand against Thanos with an Avengers team led by Captain Carter in future seasons. But even going off the first episode’s reimagining of Captain America: The First Avenger, the 30-minute runtime wasn’t long enough to make Captain Carter’s story all that different from Captain Rogers’.
Whenever the episode deviates from Steve’s story, like showing the prejudice that a female Cap would face from her sexist superiors, it’s reduced to a couple of throwaway lines. For the most part, “What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?” just recreated all the most memorable moments from The First Avenger with Peggy in Steve’s place. It’s visually exciting, but plays like a gender-swapped remake instead of a deep dive into an alternate universe.
If “What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?” is anything to go by, then the upcoming episode in which T’Challa becomes Star-Lord could just be a brisk remake of Guardians of the Galaxy with T’Challa in Peter Quill’s place. It’s a wildly unexpected, out-of-the-left-field idea, and an opportunity for an ambitious Guardians/Black Panther crossover, but half an hour might not be long enough to do that.
Broader concepts like Marvel Zombies or anything involving Thanos that would have universe-wide ramifications within the MCU could be fleshed out as entire movie trilogies or multi-season shows on Disney Plus. At just 30 minutes, each What If…? episode could end up feeling like an extended teaser trailer for a larger, more ambitious project we’ll never get to see. It’s hard to imagine that the What If…? writers will be able to explore all the implications of the Avengers rising from their graves in the Marvel Zombies episode if they have to introduce the narrative and wrap it up within a half-hour.
One thing that was clear in the pilot is that the limited runtime is forcing the writers to be economical in their storytelling. With so many scenes in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki that felt like they were dragging out the storylines for time, it’s refreshing to see a show that has the opposite problem. Instead of having to pad out its episodes with filler, What If…? has to excise everything that isn’t absolutely necessary.
A.C. Bradley’s script for the first episode was airtight. Every scene moved the plot forward and every line of dialogue, aside from a couple of well-placed quips, served the story. It’s possible that What If…? can tell fully-realized stories within a half-hour, but that won’t happen if each episode insists on cramming an entire movie’s worth of plot into a quarter of the runtime.
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