We already know a lot about Marvel’s What If...? We know what most of the episodes are about. And we know Season 2 is in the works. But one thing we don’t know is how What If Season 1 will end. Until now.
What If finale leaked?
Like with any new Marvel Studios release, What If is a chance for Disney to make some money on advertising tie-ins. In the case of What If, that means a new Hyundai commercial in the style of the animated anthology.
But what’s interesting about this commercial is that it features a recognizable What If character in a very new setting. Episode 1’s main character, Captain Carter, is back. But this time, she’s brought the Avengers.
The commercial shows Carter, Doctor Strange, and Star-Lord fighting against an army of what appear to be Ultron robots. Uatu shows up to help as well, as does Thor riding in a Hyundai while swinging Mjolnir with abandon. (Side-note: it’s unclear if we’re looking at regular Strange and Star-Lord here or their What if variant counterparts.)
Check out the full commercial below:
Does What If commercial really matter?
It might matter a lot. Then again, it might also mean nothing.
Marvel has a long history of releasing tie-in ads like these, and they usually have no bearing on canon. Then again, it’s possible that this car commercial is cribbing directly from an upcoming What if episode. For one thing, we know that Captain Carter is set to return, though it’s unclear if that will happen in Season 1 or if we’ll have to wait until Season 2. So everything here seems pretty possible — except for Thor driving a Hyundai.
The Inverse analysis — it would be pretty cool to see all the Avengers variants teaming up in the What If finale and it would also give the anthology series a bit more continuity.
After all, now that the Marvel multiverse has opened up, these aren’t just meaningless anthology stories. Everything that happens in What If is technically “canon” to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and creating a bit of interconnectivity between individual episodes could be the first step towards linking them to the rest of the MCU.
What If Episode 1 is streaming now on Disney+.
