Marvel’s What If…? has delivered some wild alternate timelines across its first season. One of its most successful came in episode 2, which imagined Black Panther‘s Prince T’Challa living out Star-Lord’s life from the Guardians of the Galaxy films instead. Naturally, that’s got fans thinking about other similar situations. For example, what would it be like if, say, Captain America and Bucky Barnes were whisked off to Sakaar instead of Thor (as seen in Thor: Ragnarok)?
This wild What If…? fan art from digital creator Jackson Caspersz has given us a taste of how that would go. In this epic artwork, Steve Rogers – complete with his Avengers: Infinity War beard – and Bucky are clad in more medieval versions of their familiar Cap and Winter Soldier uniforms, fitting the gladiatorial style of the warriors who compete in the Grandmaster’s Contest of Champions on the wormhole planet.
The animated anthology series has yet to deliver a proper twist on Ragnarok, though episode 7 – “What If… Thor was an Only Child?” – featured some characters from that fan-favorite movie. e.g. Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster. Maybe this could be something that season 2, which is already in the works, will serve up instead.
While season 1 has mostly focused on twisting Phase 1 movies, season 2 will move ahead and tackle Phase 4 films, with one episode confirmed to be a riff on Black Widow. Another will also be a comedic installment starring Tony Stark – this was intended for season 1 but held back due to the pandemic affecting production. This is why season 1 only has nine episodes instead of 10. It’s unclear if season 2 will clock in at 11 episodes or not right now, though.
This week sees What If…? reach its season finale, with the second half of the two-part storyline involving a superpowered, Infinity Stone-wielding Ultron that began last week. Catch it on Disney Plus this Wednesday.