Marvel’s Multiverse Saga Can’t Ignore The MCU’s Largest Multiverse Story

The MCU is heading toward Avengers: Secret Wars, meaning that Marvel Studios cannot ignore its biggest multiverse story so far. After Avengers: Endgame saw all the Avengers as well as countless other Marvel characters joining forces for one massive battle against Thanos in what is currently the second-highest-grossing movie of all time, it became clear that the MCU would need the multiverse if it wanted to create similar epic-scale stories in the next sagas. With Spider-Man: No Way Home rivaling Avengers: Infinity War’s box office during a pandemic, the multiverse and all of its possibilities were confirmed as essential for the future of the MCU.

Spider-Man: No Way Home may have been the most ambitious Marvel multiverse crossover so far, but when it comes to the rules and possibilities of the multiverse concept, it was a very self-contained story. Similarly, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness used the multiverse concept to bring names like Professor Xavier and Reed Richards to the MCU before the actual debuts of the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Right after Endgame, Loki introduced some of the rules and tricks of the MCU’s multiverse. However, in terms of exploring how large the Marvel multiverse can be, the MCU’s best story was the Disney+ animated series What If…?

What If…? Unveiled The MCU’s Multiverse

Loki’s first episode promised a multiverse-focused story by having the TVA’s Mss. Minute explaining the “Multiversal War” that defined the rules of the multiverse and how the TVA came to be. However, given how Loki combined the concepts of time travel, alternate realities, and multiverse into one, the show was more focused on how different actions lead to the creation of new timelines rather than on the multiverse itself. That said, the end of Loki season 1 set up a more chaotic multiverse for future MCU shows and movies to explore. Sylvie killed He Who Remains and lead to the creation of infinite new timelines, something that What If…? then got to unveil.

The first eight What If…? episodes each visited a different universe from the main MCU – where a lot of things were similar, but some were very different. Inspired by a Marvel Comics imprint of the same name, What If…? combined the MCU’s multiverse lore with something that both Marvel and DC had been doing in the comics for decades – exploring different scenarios outside of the main canon. Each What If…? episode posed a question for the viewers, going from “What If… Captain Carter Were The First Avenger?” to “What If…The Watcher Broke His Oath?”. With just one season, What If…? showed more important universes than any other MCU multiverse story.

Granted, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness visited 22 new universes, yet most of them were limited to blink-or-miss moments during Strange and America Chavez’s “multiversal fall”. What If…?, on the other hand, dedicated entire episodes to each of its new universes, with the final episode serving as the culmination of all previous eight stories. Whereas No Way Home and Doctor Strange 2 used the multiverse mainly as a plot device to bring in legacy characters like previous Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man and Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, What If…? was a show about the multiverse itself. That is why What If…?’s main character was The Watcher and not an Avenger.

Is What If…? Canon? It’s Complicated

It can be tricky to discuss What If…?’s canon status when all nine What If…? episodes feature a different universe from the MCU. However, a simpler answer to that question is that What If…? is canon to the MCU’s multiverse. None of the events of What If…? directly affected the MCU’s main timeline, at least for now, but each of those universes exists somewhere in the MCU’s multiverse. More than multiverse rules, what should truly help define What If…? as canon is the fact that it was produced by Marvel Studios. Before the release of What If…? season 1, head writer A.C. Bradley confirmed that What If…? is canon (via IGN).

That said, how the MCU will embrace animated shows into its canon still hasn’t been answered. X-Men 97, a revival of the classic X-Men: The Animated Series, is being produced by Marvel Studios for Disney+ yet it is presumably not MCU canon given how it will continue the story of the original X-Men show. Another example is Marvel Zombies, a What If…? spinoff set in the zombie alternate universe and not on the MCU’s Earth-616. Finally, Spider-Man: Freshman Year seemed like it would be set in the MCU, but will instead follow an alternate version of the MCU’s Spider-Man with Norman Osborn having a role in the story.

Doctor Strange 2 Could’ve Acknowledged What If…? (But Chose Not To)

The biggest question mark regarding What If…?’s importance to the MCU came with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. While Spider-Man: No Way Home looked at the multiverse through the lens of Spider-Man’s life, Doctor Strange 2 was expected to be the most ambitious Marvel multiverse project – it was the “Multiverse of Madness” after all. As such, many assumed that Doctor Strange 2 would revisit or at least reference some of the universes shown in What If…?. Those theories became even more popular once an evil version of Doctor Strange who resembled What If…?’s Strange Supreme appear in the first Multiverse of Madness trailer.

It seemed only natural that the evil Doctor Strange in Doctor Strange 2 would be the same version audiences had met a few months earlier in What If…?. From the looks of this Evil Strange to Benedict Cumberbatch’s delivery, everything pointed to a What If…? character making their jump to live-action. Likewise, Captain Carter’s shield appeared in one of the final Doctor Strange 2 TV spots. If Captain Carter was in Doctor Strange 2, then it was easy to assume that it would be the same Captain Carter from What If…?. However, neither Evil Strange nor Captain Carter was the same version from What If…?.

Although the multiverse is large enough to have multiple similar versions of the same character, it was surprising that Doctor Strange 2 chose not to feature any live-action version of a What If…? character. What If…? had told the origin stories of Captain Carter and Strange Supreme, meaning that audiences would already have a certain connection with these multiversal characters. Obviously, where the stories of Strange Supreme and Captain Carter ended in What If…? wasn’t necessarily what Doctor Strange 2 needed, but adjustments could have been made. In other words, Marvel had the chance of referencing its largest multiverse story in a live-action movie, but chose to not.

What If…? Is Already Marvel’s Best Secret Wars Set-Up

The MCU’s Multiverse Saga is building up to Secret Wars, which in the comics refer to two versions of a major crossover event that saw the fate of the multiverse at stake. It is safe to assume that the MCU’s Secret Wars will borrow more from the 2015 Secret Wars comic book arc than from the 1984 one, as the former was far more ambitious and consistent than the latter. Whether Doctor Doom will appear in Avengers: Secret Wars is difficult to say, especially because Kang the Conqueror will fight the Avengers while Doom has yet to be introduced in the MCU.

Nonetheless, Avengers: Secret Wars can adapt other elements from the Secret Wars comics, including Battleworld. In the comics, Battleworld was built from what was left of several universes that had been destroyed due to Incursions. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness introduced the concept of Incursions in the MCU, meaning that it is now easier for Avengers: Secret Wars to feature Battleworld. Instead of having never-before-mentioned realities becoming part of Battleworld, Secret Wars could use universes from What If…? season 1 and 2 as the fallen realities that form Battleworld. That would undo Doctor Strange 2’s mistake and acknowledge Marvel’s richest multiverse story.