The ‘What If?’ Finale Will Unite the Heroes From Throughout the Season
This season of What If...? has been an entertaining (if sometimes frustrating) tour through the multiverse, with each episode focusing on a different world and a different version of familiar Marvel characters. In one, Doctor Strange might be driven mad in his quest for power; in another Killmonger might rescue Tony Stark from the Ten Rings, ensuring Iron Man never gets built. To date, the only connective tissue between episodes has been the Watcher, voiced by Jeffrey Wright, who observes these multiverses but never interferes.
It has always sounded like a setup that would lead to the Watcher breaking his vow of non-interference and it looks like that’s exactly what will happen on the show’s season finale. The teaser for tomorrow’s eighth episode of the season features a character who actually debuted last week on What If...?; a version of Ultron who takes over Vision’s body and acquires the Infinity Stones, making him just about unbeatable.
Clearly it’s going to take a massive amount of firepower to defeat this super-sized Ultron, and in an interview with Entertainment Weekly What If...? head writer A.C. Bradley confirms that in the season finale “we will see some of our heroes again.”
Director Bryan Andrew added that the whole season has been structured this way from the beginning....
It was designed to be a certain way, and some people have been vibing and savvy enough to notice that we're slowly seeing more and more of the Watcher's visual appearance as we move forward. And that was all orchestrated from the very beginning. It's all now coming to an arrow's tip point.
Bradley also noted that while episode 8 works as a “standalone” with episode 9, “for once we actually answer the end tag.” My guess is that Episode 8 shows how this Ultron glimpsed at the end of Episode 7 rose to power, and then Episode 9 features a group of What If...? alumni (like Captain Carter, Zombie Hunter Spider-Man, Party Boy Thor) teaming up to save the multiverse at the behest of the Watcher.
The penultimate episode of What If...? premieres tomorrow on Disney+. The finale follows next Wednesday.