With “Loki” in the rearview mirror, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is now a full-on multiverse. And what better way to explore it than in the new animated series, “What If…?” And in this episode of The Playlist Podcast, we discuss Marvel Studios’ new animated series, as well as talk to the two people responsible for the show, head writer A.C. Bradley and director Bryan Andrews.
And while we do spend time discussing our thoughts on “What If…?” (spoiler alert—we really liked it), we learned quite a bit when speaking with Bradley and Andrews. Specifically, it was surprising to learn the creators didn’t really have any idea the multiverse was going to be such a bit part of the MCU until well after they already began work.
“We knew early on that the multiverse was going to be part of Phase 4, and since animation—I joke—is the medium of patience, we started all the way back in 2018,” explained Bradley. “We had a meeting with the ‘Loki’ team just to kinda discuss multiverse rules, but kinda, the decision was that we’d go have fun and play with it and we’ll leave the actual rules-setting to them.”
Andrews added, “We were focused on the stories we were telling because for a while, we weren’t sure what anyone else was doing. We’re working on it and suddenly we hear, ‘Oh yeah, “Doctor Strange 2,” they’re finally doing that and it’s going to be “Multiverse of Madness,’ and we’re like, ‘Whaaaat?’ And then we find out Loki is going to have his own show…and eventually we find out it’s going to be about the TVA and all this other stuff, and we’re like, ‘Whaaaaat?’ But by then we are like way, way moving forward.”
After viewers enjoy the first season of “What If…?” the inevitable question will be asked—when will we see folks like Captain Carter show up in live-action? Well, you’re not going to get spoilers for the future from Bradley or Andrews. But they will tease a little.
“It’ll be interesting to see, once [‘What If…?’] comes out, what the big minds up top have in store and where cross-pollinations may or may not happen,” said Andrews. “We have no idea where they want to go with it. We know that they know, but we don’t know yet.”
The first season of “What If…?” debuts on Disney+ today and will air new episodes each Wednesday. You can hear our discussion of the show and our interview with Bradley and Andrews below:
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