What If...? (2021– ) User Reviews (497)

S1=Amazing S2=Meh

[chrishomer-69515 · 6/10 · 31 December 2023]

Just talking about season 2. It feels like Marvel are really hanging off past glories.

The highlights were the Kahhori and Hela episodes. Just great to watch, but the rest of the series was just plain boring. The 1602 episode could have been amazing.

In the main, Marvel has to listen to the fans and stop these tedious big fights to round off every single film or series. Really Loki has been successful and great to watch because it's unpredictable. Seems like when the big fights happen , I just assume the writers didn't have any better ideas and were playing it safe. Really this type of ending will mean marvel will just become irrelevant.

Great scenarios, but varies between episode

[briancham1994 · 8/10 · 10 October 2021]

Now that the first season is over, I can confidently say that this series has exceeded my expectations. It uses witty scripts and detailed animation to bring the fans the service they've been wanting and more. Each episode is quite varied so there are many different scenarios and you never know how it will turn out or which characters will show up. The series wastes no time explaining any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and just gets to the point of the scenarios, and also starts to merge the scenarios without warning. This is for the fans, not casual viewers! However, the variety of episodes also means that the quality and tone also vary quite drastically. The short runtime means that many events and battles are cut short. There was a good amount of care to make everything canon and consistent, but there are still some shortcomings and the power/ability of each character seemed to be contrived based on the needs of the plot.

Cool series with interesting twists n tales.

[ThomDerd · 8/10 · 21 September 2021]

This is fun. I am enjoying every story.

Not all episodes are as good but overall it's worth it.

(The doctor strange episode for example was exceptional).

If you are a Marvel fan, you will probably like it, for these -and many more- following reasons:

1-Happy to hear all the voices from the MCU actors. Makes the starting titles interesting; you d wanna see who's in it.

2-The stories are captivating. There's some comedy, action, drama; a good range.

3-There's some great one-liners. New ones and also memorable ones.

4-The pace of each of the episodes is excellent. It really gets you into the story.

5-It does great tribute to MCU's pivotal points.

Give it a go, you will enjoy it.

8/10.

Doctor Strange Episode...Wow

[imperialwalkrnyr · 8/10 · 2 September 2021]

Really enjoying this series & the risks they've taken so far.

What If...I Love It And Need More?

[Swooping_Owl · 10/10 · 1 September 2021]

Season one is absolutely 10 out of 10. I love the animation and different multiverse timeline stories. How it all comes together in the end is pure brilliance. I had to rewatch it again before season two. Dr. Strange's episode is very emotional and so well written. It's my favourite one hands down. My next faves would be the first episode with Captain Carter, the zombie one and the last two with Ultron. However, I appreciated each episode for their humour, brilliance, underlining meanings and symbolism.

Now that season two is out I have to say I think I loved it more than season one. I was glad they went back to season one and cleaned up stories on certain characters like Gamora. Also, I was thankful they finished the Captain Carter and Hydra Stomper story. Captain Carter is awesome and I enjoyed that episode immensely. It was hard picking favourites this time around as I really appreciated all of them. However, that being said, the introduction of Kahhori in episode six was incredible and definitely my fave. That story was so touching and beautiful. I love how it was done it a native and Spanish language. I absolutely want to see more of this character in the future. My next faves would be the three with Captain Carter, Hela and the Ten Rings, Happy saving Christmas.

This is such a great show and I hope it gets many more seasons in the future because I'm a huge fan.

Too much Captain Carter!

[Spoonmagic · 6/10 · 30 December 2023]

There are so many stories here to tell yet there is too much focus on Captain Carter, sure 1 story about her is fine but there's (so far) 3 episodes about her in season 2 and I fear more to come. I'm just not that interested in her. Also skipped the one about the native American hero back in the day...didn't know who she was and didn't care.

They made some odd choices on which stories to tell. I would of liked to see some more spider man, iron Man, hulk and Thor but we got stuck with carter too much or hero's we don't care about.

Required characters are stupid with reviews, its not a God damn thesis.

People need to review the entire show instead of only 1 episode

[spidermonkeycoleman · 8/10 · 27 August 2021]

IMDB really needs to work on their audience review system. All the bad reviews are only for 1 episode and not the entire series. You can't judge an entire show on its first epiosde.

While Ep 1 wasn't great, the rest are a huge improvement. Intriguing stories and, surprisingly, the humor lands more than you'd think. Decent voice acting and it really helps that most of characters are voiced by their live-action actors.

Overall, don't trust 90% of the bad reviews because they are only rating the first or second episode. Instead, trust the reviews judging the entire series.

The series as a whole isn't terrible. I was hoping for better but ultimately I'm okay with what we got. The epsidoes range from really good to pretty bad but they're enjoyable regardless.

Uninteresting finale and overuse of Peggy Carter

[marieoley · 7/10 · 2 January 2024]

Way too much Captain Carter. By She was charming in the first episode but overusing her and Marvel trying to grow her the same way Steve rogers is not the same. Chris Evans was a really charming presence and went along with the avengers in a subtle way and with Peggy they put away her time with the avengers. And I am an American so I will not judge her accent but something about it blasting in my brains all the time is not what one would want to have . The final battle with her Kahori and Strange was insane because Kahori is overpowered and native Americans are not the most Norwegian thing considering she came from characters of Norse mythology but her and Peggy taking the infinity suit with Kahoris power made it a little to predictable considering Strange had a bit of a harder time breaking the suit so duh.

Be patient!

[daniriam · 8/10 · 1 September 2021]

Can't believe people would rate so low based on one episode. I've seen four of them so far & it's just getting better and better. Be patient!

A lot of wasted potential. A couple of good episodes, though.

[Spartan_1_1_7 · 6/10 · 11 October 2021]

When Disney and Marvel announced their Phase 4 slate of releases, What If...? Was something I was certainly looking forward to. After experiencing Phase 4, my expectations were lowered a great deal but I was still interested in checking it out and seeing what kind of else-world stories we might be getting. After watching the entire season, the ensuing disappointment reared its ugly head yet again.

Most of the episodes had What If scenarios superficially executed, filled to the brim with one-liners and jokes that seldom had an impact made worse by the fact that the pacing and runtime hardly gave whatever plot points they were trying to push room to breathe. A rollercoaster ride of either it's just fine or meh. The lack of creativity was also disappointing but not surprising.

To make matters worse, the voice acting was sub-par for the majority of the season with performances feeling as if they were lazily phoned in by the Actors who played the characters in a much better way in their respective Live-Action outings. The soundtrack was mostly generic for the majority of it even though they have a plethora of good tracks from the past to choose from which they hardly did.

The animation was nice, though, even if I wish they would have gone full 2-D with it. At first, I didn't like it but got used to it and was glad that the 3-D stuff wasn't wonky or janky but rather smooth and fluid with some episodes showcasing beautiful stuff and thrilling fight scenes. The faces of some characters, however, could have used a lot more work.

A couple of episodes did stand out, though, and made the entire experience not feel worthless which, ironically, ultimately made it frustrating that why waste all those other episodes mucking around and playing them for laughs and giggles when stuff like this is far more impactful. The Doctor Strange one is my favourite, which surprise surprise works best since it's focused and The Ultron one which gave everyone who was disappointed by Age of Ultron's depiction of that character something to enjoy, even if I wish it was focused more on Ultron and less on other characters.

It all culminates in a mixed bag of a finale which had some truly shoddy writing to justify what happens even though the concept itself was pretty cool. In better hands, I could see this working wonderfully and that's pretty much the running theme of Phase 4 so far. In better hands, there is so much potential but seeing it all go to waste because of poor decision making when it comes to hiring writers and directors... it's just sad and frustrating to see a franchise I loved screw itself up like this.

All in all, it's not the worst thing Phase 4 has put out. Most of the episodes, despite me railing on them above, still had some nuggets of entertainment in them which hey, if you just wanna have just some light forgettable fun, they'll most likely work. A couple of good episodes do make it worth it to check it out at least if you are or was a fan of MCU. Also makes me excited for Multiverse of Madness... please be good *fingers crossed*. It just sucks to see the wasted potential. And if I were to rate Season 1 of What If...?, I'd give it a 6/10.

Keep watching, it really takes of from episode 3

[perjo-63483 · 10/10 · 1 September 2021]

The first one is ok, but then it goes wilder and wilder. Episode 4 is probably one of the best thing MCU has ever created. So keep watching, it get really good!

Marvel, please take your cue from the original series!

[KevinHartsRedheadedStepSon · 6/10 · 14 September 2021]

I really, really, really want to like this series! In fact, I want to love it! I love concepts that explore alternate realities and the like.

In the original "what if...?" Series that Marvel published back in the day, you would see things like:

• "what if Spiderman had joined the fantastic four?"
• " what is the avengers defeated everybody?"
• "what if The alien costume had possessed Spiderman?"
• "what if the Hulk had Bruce Banner's brain?"

And on and on it goes. The thing is that these stories were great because they tied directly back to Marvel's original continuity and sometimes ended better, but usually ended more tragically with a twinge of irony.

The only episode I've seen in the series that reflects that vibe so far is the Dr. Strange one. I think it resonates better than all the rest simply because it's based on a choice that we can believe would happen in Stange's continuity. And of course, the results are mind-blowing.

I don't get that same feeling from "T'challa becomes Starlord," because...well, because...or the entire MCU are zombies for no explicable reason. Or that Peggy could've saved Steve best by putting him in a machine that would accelerate his healing. Duh... the Avengers not forming episode was oh-Kay.

What could have made this a powerful series would've been if it had explored real events and choices in the MCU like:

• "what if Clint had succeeded in sacrificing himself for the Soul Stone instead of Natasha?"

Or

• "What if Steve had said "no" to the super soldier project?"

Or

• "What if Starlord had kept his cool and not punched Thanos in the face as they tried to remove the gauntlet?"

Or "What if T'Challa still kept Wakanda hidden from the world after BP?" Or

• "what if Tony hadn't made ultron (and thereby there'd been no Vision)?"

See? Way more related to what we know and waaaay more interesting.

Oh well, maybe a writer at the Big D will read this and one of these could end up in season 2?

What if season 2 is all about Peggy Carter?

[touhid74 · 4/10 · 31 December 2023]

I'm sure the pitch meeting for What If Season 2 at Marvel went like this: So, here's our plan for What If Season 2: We will bring back Peggy Carter and have heroes fight their dads in the name of freedom. Because dads are bad and they want to control kids. Then we will have more Peggy Carter. We feel that there are still some strong male characters left, so we will replace them and make every episode focus on even stronger female leads. After that, we will again have Peggy Carter, but in 1602. Finally, we feel that we have not made Doctor Strange weak enough. So we will have him defeated by Peggy Carter.

Like seriously, Marvel, if we want to focus on Peggy Carter this much, you could have just given her a movie or series. And it would have been fine. But instead, you decide to ruin What if. The series has endless possibilities. In every story so far, there have been some key moments where the heroes had to make a choice. All Marvel had to do was pick a story and explore the alternate reality of what it would have been if the hero picked a different path. It's not always going to be the best decision. The outcome might have been negative, and that's the beauty of What if. But Marvel just opted to doubled down on more female leads, predictable happy endings, and Peggy Carter.

I rated the first season of What if: 8/10.

My rating for the second season: 2/10.

Bonus: Here's a tip for Marvel. Season 3 should be "What if Marvel stopped ruining good movies/series and produced good stories like pre-endgame?"

It's promising

[cristianherediamaw · 10/10 · 1 September 2021]

I don't think every story is going to be FANTASTIC but I thought these concepts were pretty great and the animation is straight up beautiful. Y'all some haters.

Not that bad

[adlhaniyeh · 9/10 · 27 August 2021]

I just watched the 3rd episode and came here to write my review, and I'm shocked to see all these negative reviews! It's not the best MCU project but I found some of the storylines interesting. Yes it could be much better for sure, but it's not as bad as written in the reviews. Some folks are mad at Peggy becoming Captain Carter which I find weird, it's happening in an alternate universe, you guys! The series is called What If!

The animation and voice acting could be much better.

Apparantly this series is going to have impacts on the future MCU projects as well, So, give it a chance!

Edit: Some episodes are really good, the Dr Strange episode was mind-blowing. Thor's episode was a blast.

Rated the first one with 6stars, increasing 1 star after each episode

[rghvvikas · 7/10 · 11 August 2021]

A very straight forward episode of rushing things to set those pieces right into the puzzle. And my facial expressions were also pretty straight watching this episode as there was no thrill or even a logical storytelling, I understand it's an aminated show targetted at children maybe? But only those children who are familiar with all the MCU till now might perhaps be able to enjoy it.

Let's see how the rest of the episodes turn out but I am certainly not very excited about them after this one.

Edit : 2nd episode gave the actual feel of what MCU is about, it was creative and thoughtful with major WHAT IF moments. I thoroughly enjoyed watching T'challa back on screen.

However the 3rd episode was deal breaker and made me edit this review. It was so thrilling and exciting to watch, I could have watched a whole movie on this episode. It re explored the characters we know to a level that leaves u wanting for more.

I hope I get to a 10 star edit by the end of the season.

Edit II : Here goes my one more star for a 'strange' yet thought provoking episode which was by far the best among all in terms of writing, voice over, animation and storyline. Special mention for Benedict Cumberbatch for nailing the voice over like a boss. Take a bow Marvel for making this one.

However, coming to 5th episode, the episode was entertaining for sure, it was humorous and engaging with quality animation but again showed too much simultaneously not giving viewers enough time to absorb things.

Still a 9/10 overall for the series until next two episodes atleast. They gotta beat the episode 4 to get a 10 from me.

Good animation, poor pacing, quite disappointing really.

[rivalbardmaximillian · 11 August 2021]

I was very excited about the What If series, on a level similar to LOKI.

The first episode has Agent Carter becoming Captain Carter, and the episode feels as if someone was describing a movie to me in a rushed manner. Obviously there are references to the original MCU for YouTubers to microanalyze, but it almost comes off as a simple kids show with characters fighting and blowing stuff up.

The show could have had a much better story, because after all, we are dealing with the multiverse here. Instead Captain Carter still returns from the inter dimensional void after 70 years, and has not aged much here ( Tesseract was the space stone, not the time stone right?), Bucky and Steve are dead probably, and Nick Fury and Clint Barton still end up in 2012 working on the Tesseract. The writers must have skimped on the brainstorming part here. And how did WW2 era Stark design the Hydra Stomper so fast? Or how did Red Skull have the portal machine for Tesseract ready and waiting, when just a while back they discovered it?

The animation is good, though the characters reach quite close to the uncanny valley, as you keep comparing them to the live actors. The facial features which look quite good in stills and feature art seem unnatural animated. The charm of the respective actors on screen is lost in this.

At this point I am just hoping they do Chadwick Boseman justice here.

7.84 - A decent show

[rcga-48860 · 8/10 · 8 October 2021]

The episodes were very hit or miss. Some were great. Some lacked luster. Individual stories were well-written, but this anthology-turned-narrative was a bad overall story. The third episode was not necessary (despite its quality), while there was a scrapped episode referenced in the last episode. The Animation itself was great. Voice acting was good. I liked it overall for the most part. General opinion of it is a 6 or 7. But overall it makes up for it.

Season 1 had some merit; Season 2 is much worse

[chrisheartofdavid · 6/10 · 15 February 2024]

As per my title: Season 1 had some merit; Season 2 is much worse. Six stars as a nod to Season 1, which did a good job of tying together (eventually) a coherent and interesting overall story line. The Doctor Strange episodes in particular were really well done.

Season 2 however is much worse - poor writing, much less interesting story lines, and as has been noted by others, a puzzling over abundance of Captain Carter. Is this really what fans were clamouring for? At some point in the MCU series and films, someone needs to realize that pounding home the message 'women rule!' is not the same as actually having good writing and an intelligent plot. There have been notable exceptions: WandaVision, Loki are among strong offerings, but the majority, including Season 2 of What If, has been pretty weak.

Love it!

[AnnaPagrati · 10/10 · 25 September 2021]

I LOVE this show, honestly! Such interesting plot everytime, so easy to watch!

Premise is interesting.

[kiddolamo · 7/10 · 26 August 2021]

I feel the reviews are not doing this show justice. The show has an interesting premise and lets us explore different scenarios and characters.

It's fun but don't take it too seriously.

I feel the reviews are "made" to seem negative but the number of users tagging negative reviews as "helpful". Most user's default sorting is by helpful. Maybe IMDB can do something about that.

What if...what if is the best animated Marvel series ever?

[robertheduardoperezmachado · 8/10 · 6 October 2021]

Okay, maybe it is, maybe it is not. In my opinion is the best, because it delivered in every aspect. Some episodes were quite boring, but at the end every episode had its meaning and relevancy. I loved the different stories, the sad endings and the fantastic Ultron. What a fantastic job from Marvel.

4 Eps so far... Surprisingly Limp and Wasted Potential

[MessMaker · 6/10 · 7 September 2021]

This COULD HAVE been the best Marvel show on Disney+.

It really could've taken WAY more risks than the cinematic universe stuff, and definitely more than the previous shows. You'd think animation + the title implying ANYTHING can happen... literally the comics' What If combined with the MCU and added creativity... right? Nope.

Instead, this is so nothing-y that it's pointless. Think vanilla, and this is somehow even less versatile than that. The animation is high quality but somehow... uninspiring, like it's a design by committee... which, I guess these are even more evidently now.

This is like fanfic but not even as different as those dare to be usually. 4 episodes and it's been borderline alright stuff, not a single outstanding thing.

And if my subjective opinion makes me a "hater" because I don't guzzle down every piece of Marvel content like a mindless drone... then, guess I am.

Maybe it gets incredible. Who knows. I'm hoping :)

Another Marvel Trash From 2023

[likhonmain · 4/10 · 31 December 2023]

What If Season 2's ending is similar to Secret Invasion's ending, introducing an overpowered female character named Kahori. She gains power from an Infinity Stone and can stop Doctor Strange Supreme, which is surprising. Doctor Strange Supreme was originally powerful, even stopping Infinity Ultron with all the Infinity Stones, making him my favorite in What If. I watched the series mainly for him, but Marvel mishandled his character.

Initially, I expected the episode to show Doctor Strange Supreme stopping some multiverse-level villain, sacrificing himself, which would have been a perfect and just end for the character. Unfortunately, we got an unsatisfying ending.

It's clear Captain Carter will likely lead in What If Season 3, and I don't understand why so much importance is given to her. Are there no other characters in the multiverse? So now I'm not interested in it or any other MCU project. After seeing poorly written overpowered female characters, it seems we'll see more of this trend. Now, it feels pointless to invest time in MCU projects.

Peggy and Kahori totally had plot armour. Who taught Peggy to use the infinity stones with so much ease? And that enchantment was to defend her against space stone but she literally punched strange by holding all infinity stones on her bare hand (she didn't even have vibranium armour)!!

Disney is ruining marvel

[Dart- · 27 September 2021]

Too clean, too polish, too childish. It's really a shame disney is now behind marvel.

I had high hopes.