“Forever going in the drawer”: What If…? Almost Featured One of the Darkest Spider-Man Stories Fans Would Have Ever Witnessed
The last week of 2023 saw the release of the second season of the fun and imaginative series What If…? by Marvel Studios. Away from the burgeoning Multiverse and the saga of Phases 5 and 6, the writers were able to craft stories that focused on the underdogs of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and explore directions that their individual stories could have taken. It is very interesting to see how the entire MCU can alter with just one fated moment.
Almost Featured What If…? Episode With Spider-Man
A.C. Bradley, one of the writers of the What If…? series revealed she had written an episode that featured one of the darkest Spider-Man stories ever. She described it as similar to the Children of Men movie which features a dystopian infertile world. However, that episode never got made, probably due to Spider-Man being a favourite hero to everyone from kids to adults. While speaking to IGN, the writer said,
“But with Season 2, we had a bit more freedom. At the end of the day, we’re not writing the big blockbuster, 100-million-dollar movie. We’re not even showrunning the live-action TV shows. We’re the scrappy, little animation show slipping under the Marvel machine radar. So, it was really subconscious but I think we veered toward the scrappy characters in Season 2. We started with the second stringers, the undervalued and overlooked, like Nebula (Karen Gillan), Darcy (Kat Dennings), and Hela (Cate Blanchett).”
The central figures of the MCU get a lot of attention in their titular movies and TV shows, so it was a breath of fresh air to explore the storylines of MCU underdogs. Even though they are not at the epicentre of the multiversal story, their actions do impact the central heroes and the culminating saga. Talking about writing the second season during the initial days of the pandemic, Bradley mentions how What If…? became an escape from reality.
“It felt like the world was already ending and we didn’t need to add to it. And so it became kind of an escape and a fun release. However, I did write an episode, which is forever going in a drawer, that was very, very dark. I was calling it ‘Children of Men with Spider-Man.’ “
Writers of the animated series are creative with a knack for tugging at the right strings. Considering Spider-Man is coming into his own after all the Multiversal madness, it would have been exciting to see the web-slinging hero in a darker arc, even if it’s just in an alternate universe.
Also Read: What If…? Head Writer May be Leaving Season 3 to Join Ms. Marvel Season 2
Other Episodes of What If…?
The quirky anthology series features alternate versions of famous Marvel tropes by either changing characters or placing heroes in a different timeline altogether. Ultimately, the secondary characters got the limelight in What If…? Happy Hogan, Nebula, Valkyrie, and Captain Carter are seen headlining season two.
- Episode 1: What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?
- Episode 2: What If… Peter Quill Attacked Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?
- Episode 3: What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?
- Episode 4: What If…Iron Man Crashed Into the Grandmaster?
- Episode 5: What If…Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?
- Episode 6: What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?
- Episode 7: What If… Hela Found the Ten Rings?
- Episode 8: What If… the Avenger Assembled in 1602?
- Episode 9: What If… Strange Supreme Intervened?
Contrary to releasing the episodes weekly, Disney tried out a new roll-out by releasing episodes daily to end the year with a bang. It kept up the excitement for people to discover a new story every day leading up to the new year countdown. Some feel the second season does not ignite more pertinent questions as the previous season did. Nonetheless, What If…? Season 2 managed to entertain the viewers with stories out of the ordinary.
All the episodes of What If…? season 2 are now streaming on Disney+.
