Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Marvel's What If…?: Season 1! For more on the animated series, check out our review of the Season 1 finale, and then see our breakdown of the most shocking What If…? moments and a list of all the returning MCU actors.
Marvel' What If…? has officially wrapped up its first season on Disney Plus, but it's safe to say the story is just beginning. The finale wraps up a number of loose ends and reveals the secret threads tying together what seemed to be a series of standalone, isolated adventures. In the process, we're starting to get a clearer picture of how the series will evolve in Season 2.
Let's break down what we learned from the finale. But first, let's touch on the most confusing element of Episode 9 – the mysterious version of Gamora who Uatu the Watcher recruited for his Guardians of the Multiverse.
What If…?'s Missing Gamora Episode
The Season 1 finale turned out to be an unexpectedly confusing experience, as it features a version of Gamora we've never seen before. Fans could be forgiven for thinking they missed an episode somewhere along the way, because that's exactly what happened.
Executive producer A.C. Bradley has revealed that Season 1 wound up being one episode shorter than planned due to some pandemic-based production setbacks. That lost episode is reportedly set in a universe where Tony Stark never makes it back through the portal at the end of The Avengers. Instead, he's dragged to Sakaar and becomes the galaxy's new favorite arena champion in place of the Hulk. That causes a chain reaction of events that somehow results in Tony joining forces with Eitri and Gamora (wielding her father's armor and double-bladed sword) and destroying the Infinity Gauntlet before Thanos can unleash its power.
The good news is fans will eventually see this missing episode, but it's been bumped to Season 2. That's sure to stir up some debates over the proper viewing order for What If…?, much like how watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars in chronological order requires a bit of extra homework.
Weirdly enough, multiple toys based on this missing Iron Man/Gamora episode have already made their way to stores. LEGO released a set that includes Tony's Sakaarian armor, Uatu, and a mohawked Valkyrie, and Funko released a "Gamora: Daughter of Thanos" figurine in its What If…? line.
The Guardians of the Multiverse
Episode 9 ties the whole series together by introducing a team called the Guardians of the Multiverse. We now know that characters like Captain Carter, T'Challa Star-Lord and Strange Supreme aren't just isolated characters in an infinite multiverse, but characters with a pivotal, shared role in saving reality as we know it.
The Guardians of the Multiverse is a new concept that doesn't directly draw from Marvel's comics. The closest analogue would be the Exiles, a team of heroes from across the multiverse tasked with fixing unnatural deviations to the timeline (not unlike Loki's Time Variance Authority or DC's Legends of Tomorrow). Traditionally, Exiles has been more of an X-Men-centric franchise, though the most recent incarnation did induct Captain Carter into Marvel's comic book universe. [Note: She actually originated in the mobile game Marvel Puzzle Quest, of all things.]
Marvel Comics is also introducing a similar team in the upcoming Avengers Forever, which features many incarnations of Earth's Mightiest Heroes from across the multiverse. Do we sense corporate synergy at work?
Presumably, the Guardians of the Multiverse will continue to be the glue that holds together the many separate universes of What If…?. Even if new episodes continue to prioritize standalone stories over the ensemble format, sooner or later another threat will emerge that forces Uatu to intervene again and assemble his team. The roster may be fluid, but the mission remains the same.
Episode 9 is called "What If… The Watcher Broke His Oath?" That title seems to hint at some ominous consequences to his actions here. Uatu may have saved the multiverse, but what fallout will he face for violating his sacred oath to observe but never interfere? He fixed the damage he inadvertently caused with Ultron, but what if Uatu becomes overconfident and tries to "fix" things that would have been better left alone? That may well be one of the central themes of the series going forward.
What If…?: Post Credits Scene and What to Expect From Season 2
Marvel has already confirmed that at least some of the characters introduced in Season 1 will continue to appear in future seasons. Stories like the Captain Carter plotline will become serialized, revealing even more far-reaching ramifications of these deviations.
Episode 9's mid-credits sequence gives us some idea of what to expect from the next Captain Carter episode. Peggy discovers Hydra was working to recover Steve Rogers' old Hydra Stomper armor, and we're left to believe Steve himself may have somehow survived inside the suit. Just as the series premiere explored a new take on the events of Captain America: The First Avenger, the sequel may tackle the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (presumably with Steve himself playing the Winter Soldier part).
Between a Captain Carter sequel and the aforementioned missing Sakaar episode, we have a pretty good idea of what to expect from two Season 2 episodes. The Season 1 finale also implies Strange Supreme's story is far from done. When last we see him, Strange has trapped the Arnim Zola-possessed Ultron and the rogue Killmonger in a pocket dimension, ensuring neither villain can threaten the multiverse. But given that Strange Supreme is mourning the loss of his entire universe, who's to say he won't crack and decide to unleash the Infinity Stones once more?
It's also worth remembering that by the time Season 2 debuts, both Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will have hit theaters (barring any further release date changes). Both films look to deal heavily with the Marvel multiverse, so they may open up new storytelling angles and alternate universes for What If…? to explore. Who knows? Maybe characters like Captain Carter or Uatu will make their live-action debuts in the Doctor Strange sequel.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.