What If...? Season 2 Could Include Eternals, Shang-Chi, And More

What if ... there were more of Marvel's "What If...?" And what if ... it featured characters from Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

That seems to be the thought process going on over at Marvel Studios these days. The animated Disney+ series is winding down its first season, with the finale, "What If... the Watcher Broke His Oath?" set to air today. According to showrunner A.C. Bradley, all the episodes for "What If...?" season 2 have already been written, and it sounds like some of them will feature heroes that moviegoers have just met or will soon meet, like Shangi-Chi and the Eternals.

Bradley recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly, where she teased some of what fans can expect from "What If...?" next season:

"Going into the second season, we're sticking with anthology form, and it's going to be all-new stories, lots of fun, new heroes, and pulling more from Phase Four than we were obviously able to this season. Hopefully, we'll see hints of Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Black Widow characters. The fun of What If...? is that we get to explore the entire infinite multiverse, so we try and bounce around as much as we can. I want to play with all these characters, and as much as I love Captain Carter, we've got to share the love. I'm very excited to show new worlds, new heroes."

It's interesting to hear Bradley mention "Black Widow characters," since Natasha Romanov herself has already featured in more than one episode of "What If...?" and Scarlett Johansson just settled her lawsuit against Disney last week. I don't necessarily think Johansson will be coming back to voice the role; Lake Bell has been doing that this season. But the "Black Widow" movie also introduced characters like David Harbour's Red Guardian and Florence Pugh's own Black Widow, Yelena Belova. Names like those are probably who Bradley is talking about when she says "'Black Widow' characters."

I haven't seen "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" yet, and "Eternals" doesn't hit theaters until next month, so I couldn't begin to speculate how those characters might fit in, but there's also Jeffrey Wright's series narrator, The Watcher. After last week's episode, you have to wonder if they'll be beefing up The Watcher's presence a little more. 

"What If...?" season 1 has slowly peeled back the curtain on The Watcher, who is traditionally bound by a vow of non-interference. At first, it seemed like the series wasn't even going to show him as anything more than a pair of glowing eyes or a silhouette in the background. However, the penultimate episode of season 1, "What If... Ultron Won?" gave us a good look at The Watcher, and not only that, it had him engaging in fisticuffs.

Having already banked scripts for all of next season's episodes, Marvel is clearly hoping that viewers will be keen to watch more of The Watcher and "What If...?"

The season 1 finale premieres on Disney+ today.