Marvel Studios has dropped their first official trailer for Marvel's What If..?, and here are all the biggest takeaways. The Multiverse is becoming increasingly important to the MCU's Phase 4 slate. As explained in Loki, the timeline is naturally chaotic, and any moment has the potential to create a new branch - according to one comment, something as simple as a person being late for work could create an entirely new timeline.
There are still lots of unanswered questions about the MCU's Multiverse, not least being its origin given Loki has introduced a secretive group called the TVA whose job is to prune branches before they can become well-established. But it's now clear Multiversal variants of the various heroes and villains could be wildly different to the characters viewers are familiar with, so much so that Loki episode 5 introduced a version of Loki who's actually an alligator. That means the story potential is almost limitless - and Marvel's upcoming What If..? series will mine that potential, introducing audiences to a range of timelines where characters turned left instead of right, switched places, or even turned into zombies.
Marvel has dropped the first full trailer of What If..?, introducing a number of the key variants in play - and hinting some sort of Multiversal catastrophe is going on that will force them to work together. Here's every alternate character and timeline that can be identified in the trailer.
Iron Man launched the MCU, and so appropriately, Marvel's What If..? trailer starts with a switch-up version of what should have been Iron Man's origin. Here, industrialist never gets shrapnel embedded in his chest, because he's rescued by Erik Killmonger. This is something of an unholy alliance, because Killmonger would be utterly dedicated to taking over Wakanda, and he has a powerful ally in an amoral industrialist who's never learned humility in the Afghan caves. A Funko Pop has confirmed Killmonger will become King of Wakanda - he's briefly shown leading an army in one shot - and there's what seems to be an uprising against his rule featuring members of the Wakandan Royal Family and Pepper Potts, suggesting Stark's long-suffering secretary betrays the alliance between her boss and Killmonger.
There have been reports Marvel's What If..? will introduce an evil version of Doctor Strange, one who turns to magic after the death of his true love - and becomes a terrifyingly powerful sorcerer. The trailer includes shots of Strange walking into a chamber, where he surrounded by mystical runes reminiscent of the ones seen in WandaVision. He then plunges down, possibly transported into the Multiverse, in a clear riff on the "Magical Mystery Tour" scene in Doctor Strange - perhaps hinting this variant learns magic from a very different mentor. A later shot shows Doctor Strange in pitched battle against the Ancient One, confirming his turn for the worse.
In another timeline, Peter Quill isn't the one kidnapped as a boy by Yondu - T'Challa of Wakanda is. He still becomes Star-Lord, and in one shot even claims the Orb containing the Power Stone on Morag, but his relationship with the Ravagers is very different to Quill's; rather than a semi-outcast, T'Challa fits right in, and in one superb scene he shows why he's become one of their trusted strategists. "A Ravager never flies solo," he declares, although amusingly the Ravagers miss the command and don't initially step in as ordered.
Merchandise has shown a version of Natasha Romanoff in the Red Room's customary Black Widow gear, hinting at a timeline in which she never left the program. If that is indeed the case, then some shots in the trailer suggest this variant of Black Widow will infiltrate General Ross' super-soldier projects and interfere with the creation of the Hulk in some way - she's seen facing off against the Jade Giant while dressed in U.S. military gear. It looks as though we're going to see an alternate version of the Hulk's origin story, one in which the Red Room got involved.
Merchandise has already introduced viewers to "Party Thor," presumably a version of the God of Thunder who never learns to take life seriously in the slightest. The Marvel's What If..? trailer suggests this Thor variant's hedonistic ways will ultimately be interrupted, when he is forced to travel to Midgard and join the battle against an army of Ultron drones. It's possible some other shots showing Loki as leader of Asgard's armies - in an alternate version of the scene in Thor where the Asgardians met SHIELD - are also from this timeline. If that is the case, Loki seems to then turn the Casket of Frozen Winters on SHIELD, meaning this time Agent Coulson doesn't win friends and allies in Asgard.
One of the most exciting prospects in Marvel's What If..? is the opportunity to see a twisted timeline in which Peggy Carter becomes the world's first super-soldier instead of Steve Rogers - likely taking up the identity of Captain Britain. The first trailer offers some tantalizing shots of Captain Carter in action, and seemingly confirms long-standing rumors Howard Stark will become her sidekick, donning his own version of the Iron Man armor. Curiously, Peggy Carter is shown both in battle against Nazis and extradimensional entities, and there's even a brief shot of her being introduced to Doctor Strange.
Another of the more heavily-teased What If..? stories sees the Winter Soldier go up against a zombie Captain America, but he won't be the only Marvel superhero transformed into a zombie. The concept of "Marvel Zombies" originates from the comics themselves, with The Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips introducing readers to a world where their favorite superheroes had become zombies back in 2005. It's been revisited countless times in the comics, and the "Marvel Zombies" brand is known for being pretty bleak. It works best in tales where characters from other dimensions accidentally crash into this horror-inspired world, or where the voracious appetites of the zombies leads to them invading other realities.
There are a couple of shots featuring the Vision, and at one point he is the one who appears to be telling people about the Multiverse, suggesting he has somehow become aware of it. Vision's role is something of a mystery, but it seems this variant will eventually choose to tear the Mind Stone from his own head, for unknown reasons. Early voice-overs featured nods towards the Infinity Stones, so there may be an Infinity Stone plot at some point.
Leaked merchandise for Marvel's What If..? featured the Guardians of the Multiverse, suggesting the variants would come together as an actual alliance. The trailer confirms this, with one shot in which Doctor Strange introduces himself to Captain Carter, and another in which Black Widow tosses Captain Carter's shield. There's a third in which the Guardians assemble for a group shot that's deliberately compared to the first Avengers movie. Only part of the team are visible, but you can clearly see Killmonger's Black Panther, a version of Gamora who wields Thanos' trademark blade from Avengers: Endgame, T'Challa's Star-Lord, and Party Thor. The merchandise suggested other team members will include Captain Carter, Doctor Strange, a version of Black Widow, and Party Thor.
Most viewers are expecting Marvel's What If..? to be a series of standalone episodes, but these shots hint there's an overarching narrative running through them all. Intriguingly, the moments before the logo appears hint that the Multiverse is shattering; that means this may tie in to the overarching Multiverse theme that's building up, which will culminate in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Supporting this theory, one shot in the Marvel's What If..? trailer shows what seems to be Scarlet Witch unleashing a flare of energy, with Okoye throwing a spear at her - and the spear disintegrating as it approaches her. WandaVision left Scarlet Witch studying the forbidden magic of the Darkhold, and according to Elizabeth Olsen her character will pick up a number of new abilities from this mystical tome - and Scarlet Witch can now "travel between universes". In the comics, Wanda Maximoff can manipulate the fabric of reality itself, and her expanding powerset is generally expected to be the cause of Doctor Strange 2's Multiverse of Madness. If there are indeed glimpses of Wanda jumping between the dimensions, then Marvel's What If..? may well have a direct narrative connection to the upcoming films.
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