What if…? Episode 8 remade Avengers: Endgame for The Watcher

Episode 8 of What if…?, the unexpectedly depressing Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney Plus series, break THE rule. The Watcher, a cosmic being charged with observing Earth, lives by a code in both the Marvel comics and the What if…? series: Don’t interfere with events, just watch what happens. The Watcher is the perfect audience substitute: What better way to envision viewers than as viewers who don’t have the option of getting involved in the story?

What What if…? Production designer Paul Lasaine told Polygon earlier in the season, The Watcher was both a narrative and a visual concept. Director Bryan Andrews wanted the omniscient, multiversal character (voiced by WestworldJeffrey Wright) to be “essentially invisible at first”, then slowly emerge in the background of the episodes until it “gets more physical.” Ryan Meindering, head of visual development at Marvel Studios, combined the idea with other Marvel traditions to make it even more effective on screen.

“The idea was to mix his images with something more like how Eternity You see it in the comics, where he’s more of a background, where you literally see space, you see time, you see all the things he’s talking about in his narrative, ”Meindering says. “If we were to include The Watcher in a movie, it would probably be very different. On this show, having him as the entry point to each episode, being the narrator speaking from a position of authority, I think all of that is what evokes the sense of The Watcher from the comics. “

In “What If … Ultron Wins?” Not only does the Watcher get “more physical”, but in the end, he stars in his own alternate timeline version of Avengers Endgame. The totality What if…? series has really been leading up to this.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for What If…? episode 9.]

Image: Marvel Studios / Disney Plus

In “What If … Ultron Wins?” the Avengers fail to destroy the malicious, conscious AI that Tony Stark once described as “armor all over the world.” Ultron eventually inhabits Vision’s body and embarks on a carnage. He stuns Earth, then cuts Thanos (not the pretty one) in two when the Mad Titan arrives on Earth with the Infinity Stones. At Avengers: infinity war From this timeline, Ultron wields the power of the Infinity Stones, imbued into his alloy body, to destroy everything from Asgard to Sakaar to the living planet Ego.

The supreme power finally awakens him to the existence of The Watcher and the possibility of overcoming an entire multiverse, including a parallel universe where Steve Rogers becomes President of the United States. Somehow, after episodes centering on Doctor Strange’s destruction of an entire reality and a Marvel zombie apocalypse where there’s little to no hope for a superhero savior, this episode is the ultimate desolation.

Then The Watcher stands up to fight. The fight is one of the most triumphant and exciting moments on the show. Up to now, What if…? It has mostly been contained within the known events of the Marvel universe, which has stifled some of the possibilities of the story. Rather than push for compelling Marvel twists that lead to its own inner drama and the stakes, the series has largely settled for changing the skin of well-known characters and jumping from one landmark piece to another landmark. The episodes haven’t been great stories, especially since they are variations of movies ingrained in the brains of Marvel lovers. But deep down, the creators have been moving toward a moment of narrative freedom: the introduction of the Watcher as a dimensional character and a unique story that explores the ethical limits of a divine entity.

Very similar Eternal is set to make in November (with trailers hinting at a post-Blip reckoning for the almighty characters), “What if … Ultron Won?” forces The Watcher to atone for the sin of staying on the sidelines during the most destructive moments in the multiversal timeline. Fortunately, liability issues are assimilated better than Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer during the Seinfeld finale – The Watcher does it believes that with the entire multiverse at stake, it’s time to punch Ultron in the face and save the day. But at the end of episode 8, his intervention is not enough and it is clear how things will end. All the tragedy we’ve seen throughout What if…? He will return, as shown in the trailers, in a team similar to Avengers from across the multiverse. Expect Doctor Strange, Black Widow, and Captain Carter to return in Episode 9 for a final showdown, led by The Watcher.

The big question remains: can What if…? put the Watcher back in the bottle heaven after season 1? And can the show be extended by simply iterating on the MCU that fans know about? Writer AC Bradley told Polygon at the top of the season that he initially released a Cronenbergian body horror episode that involved transforming Spider-Man into an actual spider, but that idea was killed off for being “under-13 stuff. years”. But with the rules completely broken, distant ideas seem a little more possible for the future. And there is a future. All signs point to another batch of What if…? Episodes in the works, with additional Marvel animated projects beginning in 2022.

“As we develop more animation and let you know what those projects are, which hopefully we’ll be able to do soon, they all justify the medium,” executive producer Brad Winderbaum told Polygon earlier this year. “That is the most important. What if…? We really had to cheer ourselves up due to the breadth of the material that we had to revisit. We could never afford it or create it. And he needs an infinite canvas. “

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