Marvel Studios’ first canonical animated series, What If…?, seemed to truly hit its stride in its second season. However, despite its premise as a multiversal adventure, for reasons out of the control of its creators the series was by and large geared toward telling stories about alternate universe Variants of the core Avengers featured in the Infinity Saga. Footage from Season 3 released following the Season 2 finale featured the inclusion of David Harbour‘s Red Guardian, teasing a new direction for the new season.
However, even as complete footage was shared, neither creator Bryan Andrews nor Executive Producer and Marvel Studios Head of TV, Streaming, and Animation Brad Winderbaum were able to give a clear answer as to when the new episodes would hit Disney Plus.
In January, Andrews revealed that the best fans could hope for is a late-2024 debut of What If…? Season 3. “They move stuff around,” said Andrews of Marvel Studios. “Every time I thought it was like, ‘Oh, it’s going to be this!’ It’s like, ‘It’s going to move a little bit!’ So, even I would hate to say something and have people’s hopes come up and then have them be dashed because of the beast of production and when things move around,” he explained. “I thought that it could come out at the end of the year in 2024 possibly, but that would be tight. There’s some other group of people that are masterminding when things [release] and they’re moving things on the board, and I don’t know where we exist on that at this moment.”
“What If…? Season Three is — that might be the one that comes out next, in terms of animation,” said Winderbaum in a May interview, adding that the next season would be “the culmination of a trilogy.”
We’re actually close to completing that one, and it really feels like you’ve gone through this amazing emotional experience with Uatu, in a way that’s… What’s great about The Watcher is that he presents himself as uncaring, and cold, and just an observer, but he cares more than everybody [and] anybody. That is on full display in that third season.
-Brad Winderbaum, May 2024
As it turns out, Andrews was indeed correct on two counts: Marvel does like to move things around and as part of the latest series of movements, Season 3 of What If…? secured a surprising release date. As revealed in a sizzle reel for the studio’s upcoming projects, the third and final season of What If…? is set to debut on Disney Plus on December 22, 2024.
Though the episode release schedule was not included in the teaser, it seems as though the studio will repeat the daily episode roll out it utilized with Season 2, which premiered on December 22, 2023 and wrapped on December 30, 2023.
During Marvel Animation’s D23 panel in August, footage from the upcoming third season showcased an expanded roster of heroes which generated quite a bit of buzz online with the majority of fans eagerly looking forward to the next group of episodes. Now those fans can look forward to settling in over the December holiday season.
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