A New Animated Marvel Series Asks TV Viewers What If…

A star-studded voice cast brings a reimagined cartoon world to Disney+

Since the launch of Disney+, Marvel Studios has regaled fans with WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki and Black Widow, these interconnected projects working together to expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This week brings another entry, albeit one that doesn’t quite link up with its brethren in precisely the same way. What If…? stands apart in that it’s animated and explores alternate universes within the MCU.

The series focuses on iconic moments in the stories of such Marvel characters as Iron Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange and more—not as they were, but as they could have been if certain situations had played out differently and taken the MCU in some unforeseen directions.

One of these imagines a universe in which Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) was injected with the super soldier serum, not Steve Rogers, resulting in a whole new hero, Captain Britain.

Another reconceives the origin story of Iron Man, with Tony Stark not injured in a war zone and forced to create his iconic suit of armour in order to survive, but instead being rescued—by mercenary Killmonger, seen by moviegoers as the baddie in 2018 blockbuster Black Panther.

The good news for fans is that most of the original actors have signed on to voice their characters, including the aforementioned Atwell, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Josh Brolin as Thanos, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/the Hulk, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Michael Rooker as Yondu, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes and the late Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther.

What if…? streams Wednesdays on Disney+