What if we lived in a world where even the kookiest and most esoteric of comic book franchises earned spotlighted screen adaptations? Wonder no longer, dreamers ye, as whoever is running the space-time continuum these days has opted to bring this hypothetical to our very dimension.
On Tuesday morning, /Film broke the news that Disney+, the Walt Disney Company’s heavily anticipated new streaming service and purveyor of original programming, will play host to a newly announced animated TV show adapted from Marvel Comics’ What If? series. Nerdist has reached out for confirmation on the news and details about Disney+ and Marvel’s potential What If? series.
For those unfamiliar, the What If? banner presented storylines estranged from the primary Marvel canon, born of thought experiments surrounding popular comic book characters. For instance: What if Peter Parker never seized his calling as a crime-fighter, and remained a civilian throughout his life? What if it was Loki who wielded the power of Mjölnir, not Thor? What if Captain America hadn’t been frozen during World War II and awoken decades later? And the like.
In keeping with the tradition of the comics, Disney+’s What If? series is reported to remain independent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe canon (unlike the other Marvel series coming to the platform); in other words, the stories presented on the program won’t have any bearing on the narrative we’ll see inhabit the films. Furthermore, we might expect there to be different actors cast to play the Marvel characters on the What If? show, especially if the series is expected to engage with the likes of Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and said tier of hero.
According to /Film, the only storyline presently confirmed to be in development for a What If? episode is the aforesaid Loki/Thor/Mjölnir fiasco. However, the nature of the comic book series not only allows for, but encourages expansion beyond its existing titles. The characters and elements popularized by the MCU will surely open doors to new What If?-friendly stories that a Disney+ series might wish to entertain. And we’ll be eager to see them take form!
Images: Marvel/Disney, Marvel Comics
