What if... The "What if" series was Canon in the MCU?

A lot of people are going crazy over the new Doctor Strange trailer that premiered during the Superbowl. And fan theories are flowing like water. Along with ideas about Superior Iron Man and zombies, one of the more popular ideas we’ve seen is that the evil Doctor Strange shown in the trailer could be the same created in the Disney+ Marvel series “What If…” And like the Watcher says, this is a multiverse of “endless possibilities.”

The multiverse concept wasn’t properly introduced into Disney’s MCU until their film “Enter the Spiderverse” in 2018. Up until then, I think we’ve only been teased with the idea of multiple universes. Disney’s “What if…” series put the cards on the table with Jeffery Wright as the Watcher and narrator leading us through these stories. In the show we’re introduced to many alternate universes and alternate versions of the heroes we know and love from the movies. At first it seems as though this is just a bunch of disconnected one-off episodes that the writers got to have a little fun with. But, as the stakes get higher, our impartial narrator is forced to intervene and we see the past episodes (and maybe one extra one we didn’t see) come together in the series’ climax.

The Watcher creates an extremely unique alternative to the Avengers in order to combat an impossibly powerful Ultron who, in his universe, successfully transferred his consciousness into James Spader’s – err… I mean the artificial body he was attempting to create in the cradle. He dispatched with Thanos quite efficiently, and quickly went on to conquer the universe using the Infinity Stones. After he finished eliminating all life, everywhere – save for Clint Barton and Natasha Romanov – his consciousness expanded and he started to wail on the Watcher. Once the Watcher was attacked, he began worrying for the safety of the multiverse, knowing that existence itself could be destroyed. So he gathered Evil Doctor Strange, Captain Carter, Triumphant Gamora, Superior Killmonger, and Party Thor to stop him. I don’t want to spoil the ending because it’s very complicated and very good, but Evil Strange is left “holding the bag” so to speak, stuck in a strange limbo and an understanding with the Watcher.

So how does this relate to the MCU? Well first and foremost it gives us an easy path between universes, as opposed to “Into the Spiderverse”’s complex trans-universal machine that was eventually destroyed. The set up for multiversal combat given to us in “Spiderman: No Way Home” is low hanging fruit that’s just ready for Doctor Strange to pluck. And with an alternate Doctor Strange suspended in limbo, we have our villain.

At first, I thought this theory was ridiculous. The “What if…” series should just be a fun little jaunt into fan fics and experiments. But for a spin off in the Marvel Universe, the stakes got pretty high. They literally threatened to destroy everything, everywhere.

But aside from the narrative openings into the major leagues, the production values are quite astounding. I mean Disney is Disney, but this little 9 episode spin off must’ve cost quite a bit of money. Not from the animation team necessarily but the voice actors. Normally in non or semi-canon series we see the production company avoid using canon-central characters, often only referring to them off-handedly or just not mentioning them at all. This series obviously had the prerequisite to use some of the biggest stars but what surprised me was that they actually got the talent to back it up. Astoundingly, it would be easier to list the Marvel characters that WEREN’T played by their real-life counterparts as opposed to the other way around. It could be a contractual thing, but why waste the money if you’re not going to be invested in the consequences?

All told, I would love to see a connection bridged between “What if…” Doctor Strange and main timeline Doctor Strange. That bag he’s holding is filled with some pretty heavy stuff. And I might actually lose it in the theater is I saw Chris Hemsworth shout “Viva Las Vegas!” Well, I guess anything’s possible.