Peggy Carter gets a shield and Chadwick Boseman becomes Star-Lord in this new trailer for What If…?
Chadwick Boseman plays T'Challa in Marvel Studios' new animated series What If...?, coming in August
TV News Chadwick Boseman
Disney+ has been quietly teasing its What If…? animated series for a while now, having released a quick teaser late last year that was fairly light on the wacky potential of Marvel’s What If brand. Today, though, Marvel Studios celebrated the long-awaited announcement of the show’s premiere date (August 11!) with an extended trailer that cuts right to the chase—and by “the chase” we mean good shit like Killmonger saving Tony Stark from the attack at the beginning of Iron Man, T’Challa leading the Guardians Of The Galaxy (and wearing a much cooler coat than Star-Lords, let’s be honest), what appears to be a Hawkeye Hulk (Hulkeye?), and, best of all, the arrival of Captain Peggy Carter. The idea, like the What If comics that the series is named after, is that these are alternate versions of the stories shown in the movies, presumably with easy hooks like “What if Peggy Carter got the super-soldier serum?” or “What if Hulkeye?”
Jeffrey Wright is playing Uatu The Watcher, here giving the usual “I’m just here to see what happens, I will never, ever, ever intervene” speech that comic readers know is complete and utter bullshit. The rest of the cast is similarly impressive, with Marvel Studios calling in pretty much everyone who has ever been in one of these movies who isn’t Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, or Robert Downey, Jr.—as far as we can tell. Some of the voices are immediately recognizable (nobody does a classic “Michael Rooker voice” like Michael Rooker, and that’s very clearly Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter), but IMDB, as untrustworthy as it is, also promises Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Natalie Portman, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Rudd, Sebastian Stan, and even Chadwick Boseman. We’ve reached out to Disney for confirmation on the cast list, but if it’s really him, it would mean this will be the last chance to hear him playing T’Challa, and that this will be his final role.
Update (7/8/21): Disney has confirmed that it is indeed Chadwick Boseman playing T’Challa, though the full cast hasn’t been officially announced yet.
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I figured this would be next, since the VO’s have been done for a bit, they just had to get the animation finished. So Hawkeye’s probably after this, followed by Ms. Marvel.
There are a lot of weird “What If…?” comics that are really out there…Like “What if Spider-Man’s Clone Lived?”.Or “What if Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor?”/s
My favourite were the What If stories in which everybody dies, like What If The Phoenix Had Not Died?
Some of those were so depressing they have stayed with me for decades – another is the What If Marvel Heroes Lost Atlantis Attacks (or whatever it was called). I guess the writers were working through frustrations, and t he one where Sue and Reed’s then-dead baby lived but slowly drained everyone of their lifeforce (that one was so depressing they had a “happier” second story ending in her having a physical breakdown, being stabbed, and Captain America likely killing a government official).
My favorites
You must have really liked that vampire one.
Kinja knows us better than we know ourselves.
“One of them really loves speedo guy”
Hahahaha. I actually had that Wolverine Trading card at the barbeque.
The Penisher
Wolverine seems to keep coming back up on ya, Nilus….
Shenanigans! You can’t post Marvel swimsuit special caps without including… that Namor page:Or this one, which was merely mildly amusing and unsettling until Diana McCallum @ Cracked absolutely nailed it with, “And then I want you to draw The Thing looking like he crapped his suit, but also got an erection from it. Can you do that?” Perfection. 💯
What’s funny is that Wolverine and Conan have not only officially met, but they’re also both on Savage Avengers since Marvel now owns the comic rights to Conan the Barbarian.
Getting the right to Conan might be an issue? Not sure
The clone issue was far more entertaining than the actual Clone Saga.
It seems like Thor: Love and Thunder is going to at least run with some of that last issue.
Kind of. Jane Foster was already the official Thor in the comics (worth mentioning that this was her name – she didn’t become a spin-off character like “Lady Thor” or “Thordis”, just THOR because “classic” Thor became unworthy).
These are my favorite…By Mike Barr and Frank MillerBy Frank Miller (These books were made before he went off the deep end)I really love these last two…Classic What If? stories like…
what if half the interesting posters on the AV Club had been banned?
:
I read the Thordis story years ago and I just gotta point out that the “startling shock ending” is just…very much written by a male writer from the 60’s. As Thordis, Jane saves Asgard from destruction, and Odin rewards her by…taking her hammer away and giving it to Thor. But as a consolation prize, Odin makes Jane a goddess. Except Jane notices Thor has the hots for Sif and immediately decides she wants to be mortal again, because what’s the point of living if you don’t have a man?
Then Odin, who is around a billion years old and looks it, *proposes marriage to Jane,* who he just met like half an hour ago. So she decides to keep being a goddess since now she has a man to make her existence worthwhile again. They get married, which technically means Thor’s ex-girlfriend is now his stepmom.
Oh, gods — I don’t think I’m strong enough for that one, Turbotastic….
Damn. I had settled on Thor as my favorite Avenger, mostly owing to his sense of humor. But f*ck those Asgardians.
THORDIS is bigger on the inside!
Jeffrey Wright is playing Uatu The Watcher, here giving the usual “I’m just here to see what happens, I will never, ever, ever intervene” speech that comic readers know is complete and utter bullshit. That would make no sense for this Watcher to be Uatus since he was killed by Earth-616 Nick Fury in Original Sin. And there’s only one Uatu since The Watchers are extra-dimensional beings that interacts with many multiverses.
EDIT: Apparently Uatu was resurrected during the events of Empyre so my point is moot.
why is it confusing if that hasn’t happened yet in the mcu?
Never mind, he was resurrected during Empyre so my point is moot.
As Marvel Comics would have you believe, the MCU is just one of their alternate dimensions (specifically, Earth-199999). The Watchers exist above all dimensions; there is only one Uatu.Of course, the MCU would tell you “we make the money, we make the rules” and this is probably more correct.
really? that’s some bullllllllllshit, but I guess they are right 🙂
Then the MCU would say “Shut up nerd”, give you a wedgie and then steal your girlfriend
I’ve read theories when the MCU becomes a multiverse, it will actually remove it from being Earth-199999 in the Marvel Comics Multiverse to create a new MCU Multiverse (MCUM) that could include every Marvel live-action property from TV and films.To say “Comics is weird” is an understatement!
I think he’s popped back up in Slott’s FF.
Seriously, the idea that his knowledge resided in his eye, not his brain, was just…stupid. Like that whole series.
As superhero murder mystery events go, it could have been so much worse…
Ah, Infinite Crisis. Where the villain kills to get back with her ex-husband, who wanted to get back together with her anyway. Who I’m I kidding? It was an excuse to put a rape in a comic.As for the other one, if you think about the killer’s motives for one second the whole thing falls apart. Just like Infinite Crisis.
Also, nice try at therapy, super-jerks.
It’s Identity Crisis that did that truly terrible, exploitative thing. Infinite Crisis has its problems but Dr. Light doing a rape ain’t one.
Identity Crisis is such a strange series looking back on it. Right before it came out there were critics who were pre-emptively calling it the next Watchmen, which is particularly hilarious with hindsight.
The Avengers Original Sin storyline that was illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu is still one of THE most beautiful modern series from the past 15 years.
Yeah that one (written by Hickman) is fantastic. The actual mini itself is shit though.
Original Sin is one of the worst comics Marvel produced in the 2010s along with Fear Itself. It’s rare you read a crossover which is so poorly thought out and goes absolutely nowhere, either during it, or in the long run.
That line from the article is GOLD!But your assumption that Death is somehow FINAL in comics is even better!;-)
but IMDb, as untrustworthy as it is, also promises…and even Chadwick BosemanThat’s definitely Chadwick as T’Challa in the trailer.
Yeah there were articles around the time Boseman passed that he had already recorded lines for this. I think it’s a fair bet most of those actors named are reprising their roles.
It was confirmed after his death that he’d recorded material for the show. Not sure why A.V. Club are reaching out to Disney instead of maybe Googling.
i’m almost positive when they last reported on this they even said it was boseman in the role.
I’m surprised they’re reaching out to anyone about anything.
By “reach out” they probably mean “tweeted at”; if it’s not on Twitter, the current AVC bullpen doesn’t care.
“Not sure why A.V. Club are reaching out to Disney instead of maybe Googling.”Because primary sources are a thing.
Because primary sources are a thing.
for REPORTERS, yeah. But here we got bloggers.
Sure but a quick check to see if it’s previously been confirmed seems the first logical (and quick) step before chasing a primary source. I’m not suggesting they base it on anonymous Reddit rumours.
I hope they can do some team-ups that with live action they can’t…like it would be dope if they could get Hugh Jackman to maybe do that teamup with Captain America and Black Widow.
it would be dope if they could get Hugh Jackman to maybe do that teamup with Captain America and Black Widow.Hell, they’ve got the Netflix characters now. If they wanted to, they could do a teamup with Daredevil and Black Widow.
Yummy
They could do a lot with the Netflix characters.Like Franken-Castle, or “what if anyone else had been Iron Fist”
I have that comic. The cover is a total lie because the story takes place in WW2 and features Cap with Logan(not Wolverine yet) and a kid Black Widow before she was Black Widow(and I think heavily implied to be a decedent of the Tsar of Russia). Was a weird story whos timeline doesn’t work in modern 616 and definitely not in the MCU
Kid Widow and the Mad Weasel is my favorite Replacements outtake
Fuck that Jim Lee art is good though.
A star isn’t enough. Jim was on his game during that run. Still, I can’t recommend the trade paperback/digital versions enough. The printing of the original floppies was horrendous because Marvel was really cutting corners to save cash.
Oh absolutely. I bought those two giant hardcovers that Marvel put out 10 or so years back which collect the entire post-Inferno Claremont/Silvestri/Lee period (excluding X-Tinction Agenda which is the break point between the two and has its own hardcover). The restoration work on Lee’s pencils is fantastic.I’m not as big a fan of Silvestri’s Uncanny run but I think he came into his own when he moved over to Wolverine and worked with Larry Hama.
Silvestri’s run was hampered by the fact that for a lot of it he and Dan Green (inker) were putting out two issues a month. Just because you can do a thing doesn’t mean you should do a thing.
Yeah that’s an excellent point. The bizarre bunch of fill-ins between the Silvestri and Lee runs is wild given the sheer number of issues being pumped out.
I need THIS:
yeah if they’re not going to give us a Hulk movie they can at least give us some uncut Hulk
I don’t want to hear about your porn preferences.
HULK SMASH BUT OTHER MEANING OF SMASH
HULK SMASH BUT ONLY WHEN CONSENT ENTHUSIASTICALLY GIVEN!
HULK ALWAYS THINK THESE LETTERS MADE UP UNTIL IT HAPPEN TO HULK!
HULK SMUSH!
“SMUSH” HULK’S WORD FOR SEX BECAUSE HULK ODDLY BASHFUL ABOUT SUCH MATTERS.
I’m more curious about what if Billy Jack just went berserk?
There would be a lot of roundhouse kicks to a lot of people’s faces?
For a moment I was like, “Wait — why would Hulk be doing roundhouse kicks to the face?”Then I realized you were talking about Billy Jack.
Im unreasonably excited for Captain Peggy Carter. Still the best female character in the MCU and whoever canceled Agent Carter is still on my shit list!!!!!
Still the best female character in the MCU
eh she’s a good candidate but needs to be in more stuff to really take the title, they also have to make her explicitly queer not this “she gave a look to an extra” bullshit
I like her chemistry with Banner.
I don’t understand why she’s Captain Carter. Couldn’t she just be Captain America?
or Captain Britain at least
I believe there is already a couple Captain Britain’s already because of course.
Chronological. In the 616, Carter would have been the first if she got the serum when Steve was suppose. As for the Braddocks, Brian wouldn’t take the mantle until the early 80s and Betsy(aka the X-man Psylock) would be briefly then and again recently.
Captain Carter is her name, not her title. They still called him Captain Rogers even after he received the serum.
“Captain Rogers” is a bit of a fudge, since Steve was a private when he was given the serum. He was then marketed to the nation as Captain America, so I guess the brass thought it would be less confusing to make him an actual Captain.“Private America” wouldn’t have the same ring to it.
Because she’s not American…
Well there’s one very good reason she’s not Captain America…
Well there’s one very good reason she’s not Captain America… Whatever could you be talking about?
Just realized how awkward that character will be if Scotland ever leaves the UK. Because that new flag will absolutely suuuuuck.
Look up in the sky! It’s Captain England and Wales!
And it might as well be “Captain England” unless they decided to finally add something representing Wales and/or Northern Ireland on the flag.On the topic of what happens if Scotland leaves, I’ve read that the UK might just keep the flag as-is. I think that makes the most sense, purely from a branding perspective. Removing the blue from that flag is a radical change that will shine a light on just how diminished the Kingdom has become. If it were as relatively minor as adding stars to the US flag, it might be a different matter.
Northern Ireland is the diagonal red, but your’re right about no indication of Wales. If they added that it could be cool, or at least a real statement….. Lose the blue but add a dragon.
No, it’s Captain Scotland!Because she’d just as soon remain in the EU, thank you all the same….
Half a reason — her father’s American, her mother’s British.It’s why she can slip into an American accent easily.
Captain Britain. She has a Union Jack on her costume.
These days she goes by Captain Brexit.
What If? was always a favorite series of mine. The second volume started the month I started collecting comics and I still have that whole run. As a newbie comic reader at the time, all the back story those comics contained and told was great.
Yeah, I didn’t have them all, but they were invaluable for helping fill out a lot of backstory of stuff that happened before I was born or when I was too young to be reading and following that stuff. It especially helped to point out older stuff that I needed to seek out once I was old enough (and had a job to pay for it). It’s how I learned about Phoenix/Dark Phoenix!
I’m a comic dunce in that I know nothing about volumes and runs. I will say I do remember loving them during my comic period form say…81 to 84? I got into music really heavily and that become my love.
That would be the tail end of the first volume. Vol 2 starting coming out in 89. Perfect timing for 11 year old me, fresh off seeing Batman at the movies, decided comics were the best thing ever.
I remember I had that Wolverine mini-series from that era: the old man tossed that and my precious Shogun Warriors out. I’ve seen the prices some of the stuff that was tossed out goes for on eBay and it’s depressing.
Mark Uffalo is my favorite voice actor.
the omphalos of the MCU
I wonder if they had the foresight to tie this into Loki?Like, it’s a show about the Gatekeepers of Canon facing a rebellion from the stars of What If?.
from the trailer it looks like strange might be jumping in and out of mulitverses, but with everything MCU could be a misdirect.
Fapfapfapfapfapfapfapfapfap
Is that the sound of pages turning quickly as you burn through “What If?” comics in an attempt to catch up?….no?
A lot of the cast list was confirmed at Comic-Con back in 2019, though not some of the big guns like Downey or Evans.
notable absences: Anthony Mackie, Tessa Thompson, Evie Lilly, Cheadle, though who knows if they just added them later
For most of those actors I’d assume that means their characters just don’t show up. If Marvel can get Don Cheadle to show up for a relatively meaningless guest appearance in Falcon & the Winter Solider, I imagine they probably could’ve got him to show up for an afternoon of vocal recording.
I’d mostly assume that also, still notable absences (esp because Jeff Goldblum appears to indicate there will be a Thor episode that could have had Tessa Thompson…and because Rhodey never really gets that much of a backstory)
Wonder if it was in their contracts that they had to agree to do voice work if schedules allowed, etc.
If they’re bothering to get people like David Dastmalchian, Toby Jones, and Djimon Hounsou to reprise minor supporting roles I imagine they’re making sure they get every original cast member, unless someone is adamant in refusing to do it. But I can’t imagine why anyone would turn them down, especially since all of the people missing from that image still have projects coming up. Is Don Cheadle going to refuse to do a days work in a recording booth and then go suit up to star in the Armor Wars miniseries?
I could see someone like Dominic Cooper saying “no I’m done with Howard Stark”, but it seems silly to sour a relationship with the studio by refusing to do voiceover work when you still have projects coming up lol
Still, the guy is also busy as his alter-ego, Psychopathic Captain Planet.
I’d like to see a What If? with Tony gaining the ability to turn into Hulk, and Banner taking Tony’s place as Iron Man.
There was a J Michael Straczynski comic called ‘Bullet Points’ that messed around with a lot of the origins of various superheroes in a what if way: Steve Rogers didn’t get the super serum but became Iron Man because he was the only person skinny enough to fit into a 1940s mechanical suit; Peter Parker is an angry teen who grows up without Uncle Ben’s guidance (he died before Peter) was born and cuts school one day, only to wander onto a gamma bomb testing site and become the Hulk; and so on. It started with an interesting premise but, in my opinion, went nowhere with it.
I’m not really a fan of the animation style. That’s gonna take some getting use to
It reminds me a bit of the style they use to reconstruct lost Doctor Who episodes. I’m also not a fan, but I’m confident that the content will make that a non-issue in this case as well.
Excited for Uatu’s introduction (outside of a Stan Lee -cameo, that is), and curious about the Howard the Duck scenes in the trailer…since I haven’t heard about that character being part of the series.
Gosh, this looks fun. I’d forgotten it was an animated show but it seems to be really good animation…!
Who’s Mark Uffalo?
Too much Marvel. Please remove one tv series and/or movie.
For some reason I was thinking Steven Wright and was hoping that Utau was going to be spinning the K-Billy Super Sounds of the Multiverse
It’s going to be a little strange hearing the MCU actors reprise their roles alongside voice actors filling in for the people that opted out. Vision was the most jarring change.
Such a jarring change I have to imagine there’s an in-story explanation as to why. Tony used a different AI in his armor at first, maybe?
That’s the beauty of the What If concept. You can cast whoever you want. What If Odin sounded like Gilbert Gottfried?
I completely agree with what you’re saying, but only if they recast all the roles, or at least a majority of them. But that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Can we all just agree that between The Mandalorian, Clone Wars, WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, The Bad Batch and now Loki, Disney/LFL/Marvel have done a fantastic job of producing very high-quality streaming series that look like they could easily be shown on the big screen as marquee features? There is so much streaming content out there right now, but Disney/+is still really the leader in terms of quality genre IP.
Aside from the Star Wars shows and MCU shows, I have no reason to keep my membership. When Loki ends next week, so does my D+ membership. There’s quite a few people that feel this way. While I agree, the quality of the shows is superb, when you only have 6 episodes a season, it gives someone like me less incentive to keep my account active.
I’m sure people feel the same way, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Disney+ is still getting its proverbial sea legs, compared to Netflix and Prime which have the benefit of having been around for a number of years already. Given time, D+ has a large slate planned for at least the next 2-3 years that can fill out their programming even more than their existing library+new content…but even with that, I’m sure that there will always be a wax/wane of members joining, leaving and rejoining. That’s why I bought a discounted 3 year membership before D+ was first released so I wouldn’t have to deal with that up and down. Add to that a free year with specific mobile providers, and that’s 4 years of just sitting back and enjoying whatever they release.
A discount would have been nice. I think I’m also in the minority when I say this, but I’m just not a Disney fan. They just happen to own Marvel and Star Wars. If they didn’t, I’d never subscribe to D+.
Well… I’d rather have six tight episodes than rambling messes like the Netflix Marvel shows.Anyway Disney probably isn’t too worried about people cancelling. They’ll be back when the next must-see event arrives, and most of us are too lazy to actually turn the sub on and off and on and off again anyway.
Well… I’d rather have six tight episodes than rambling messes like the Netflix Marvel shows.Fair enough, although I think the most recent Loki episode proved that it’s possible to have too much crammed into one episode. It really needed to be two episodes, with the first ending right before they start the final fight.I’m personally under the belief that 8-10 episodes per seasons is the sweet spot.
Assuming Hawkeye is also 6 episodes, D+ is going to be putting out 43 episodes of MCU content this year between WandaVision, TFATWS, Loki, What If…?, Ms. Marvel, and Hawkeye. And they already have announced enough for the future to expect the same for next year.Enough to justify the cost for me. Also for as much as Netflix puts out, I doubt I watch their new content any more than I watch the MCU / Star Wars stuff on D+. With how often Netflix greenlights multiple season shows that they cancel prematurely, I just don’t want to invest time in something they release until its a proven hit or a miniseries / movie.
Fun fact: Due to some really strange copyright deals, in my country, D+ has both Atlanta (which Ms Hacksaw had never seen before) and all the Ghibli movies. That’s our incentive to keep our account. (Which is good, because we both are really burnt out on Marvel and Star Wars content…) But I agree, once we’re done with Atlanta, we probably will quit, at least for a while, too. Curious to see how D+ will work out for the Mouse in the long run. (Even though you’d also have to mention that this country has the worst choice of content in all of Netflix, so it’s not like the obvious alternative was all that obvious.)
Think we got lucky in the UK that Disney+ also has Star, which I think is maybe Hulu in the US? Anyway, it’s all the Fox stuff and so there’s enough nostalgic nineties movies that I’ll keep my membership for a little longer.
i bet if you cancel and come back it counts as a ‘new subscriber’ so it just helps their numbers anyway.
No offense towards the new He-Man cartoon. I haven’t seen it. The writing and characters might be great. This is just about the character design. How they are drawn I’m talking about. It looks like every cartoon since the 90’s. The thing lines and squared jaws. It looks so boring and typical. It turns me off. This is how I feel about most (not all) animated series that are on TV. BUT The look and design of the WHAT IF…? characters looks new and interesting. It’s refreshing and appealling. It makes me wanna watch it. Thanks for going a different route.
A million times this. I immediately thought… now here’s some interesting animation/art direction.I was already “in”, but I’m way more interested now seeing it in motion.
What if an animated Ethan Hawke played Tony Stark.
THANK YOU. He reminded me of somebody, but I couldn’t put my finger on who.Also, it would be super cool (though certainly unrealistic) to use this type of vehicle to show what other actors who were famously up for various roles would’ve looked like had they been cast. Like, Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones, Tom Cruise as Tony Stark, Wesley Snipes as Black Panther, Jack Nicholson as Michael Corleone, etc.
I’m curious : have you watched any anime?Because be it the classic animation style of Masters of the Universe or this pseudo-3D style of What If…?, it is miles behind even the most basic anime you can find. And when you take some of the highest quality anime, it doesn’t even come close.I’m not saying I disagree with you, at least Marvel/Disney are trying something a bit different, but I have some difficulty calling it interesting or good when I know how good animation can be, even for TV.
I appreciate Marvel/Disney trying to get the original cast members back to continue the roles, but some of these people are terrible voice actors. Remember when voice actors were a thing?
One of the things I really liked about What If was that they were self contained stories. You didnt need to read the last 12 issues to understand what was going on, and didnt even really need to know the characters in any specific issue. It was a good series to just pick up a random book of. But if you were very familiar with that character you also got something new. Win win either way.
I’m not a big fan of the animation style, but I’m super excited for this show and the possibilities it holds. I saw Marvel Zombies! I saw Howard the Duck! Give me all the weirdness!I wonder if Spider-Man will die in these stories as often as he did in the comic books. 🤔
You didn’t mention Chris Hemsworth, but that really sounded like Hemmo as Thor.In terms of classic What If? stories, some of the best were written by a n0w-forgotten comics writer named Peter B. Gillis; one had Cap thawing out in the present day, after some ultraconservatives had used one of the comics’ replacement Caps to help bring about a fascist dictatorship in America. Another one had Spider-Man stopping the burglar that otherwise would kill Uncle Ben; because the original origin had Spidey declining to stop the burglar because his reality show had gone to his head, this version has Peter turning into a full-blown showbiz asshole.
What if MCU, but too much?
If it’s like 90% of the What If comics I’ve read, I suspect the answer for most of these hypotheticals will be “Everyone dies! HORRIBLY!”
Yes, indeed. It was often like the Marvel staff were making the cases for No Prizes. “See, fans? This is why it had to happen the way it did.”
Hee! This is all I needed, I’m there. I 😍 Drax.
Damn, I was hoping T’Challa-as-Star-Lord would also be a space-king.Still looks like a lot of fun, though.