Tag: Disney Plus

  • EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Kinney Hints at Which ‘Wimpy Kid’ Story Will Hit Disney Plus Next

    EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Kinney Hints at Which ‘Wimpy Kid’ Story Will Hit Disney Plus Next

    After Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules successfully debuted as animated features on Disney Plus, it seemed that audiences were in for a very linear adaptation of creator Jeff Kinney‘s best-selling Wimpy Kid series. Indeed that was the plan as Kinney indicated in 2022 that work had begun on turning the third book in the series, The Last Straw, into a feature intended for a 2023 debut. However, it turns out 2023’s Wimpy Kid release will instead be a Christmas Special adaptation of Cabin Fever. So what will become of The Last Straw?

    Given that Kinney and Disney had done so much work on The Last Straw before pivoting to Cabin Fever, it stands to reason that they would not let that work go to waste. In talking with Kinney about Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever, we asked if he believed The Last Straw would be next up and possibly ready for a 2024 release on Disney Plus.

    “I‘m hoping so,” exclaimed the author. “You never know what the landscape is going to look like in streaming. That world is kind of a work in progress but I’m really hoping that that story gets told.” As Kinney explained, the decision to move to an adaptation of Cabin Fever was at the behest of Disney to provide a holiday special for their streaming service and not an indication of any problems with The Last Straw. Given all those variables, it seems very logical that they’d like to finish production on that project and have it ready for 2024. However, as Kinney points out, things can change very quickly in the entertainment industry.

    Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever debuts at 12 AM PST/3 AM EST on December 8th only on Disney Plus.

  • EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Kinney on the Possibility of Developing an Original ‘Wimpy Kid’ Story for D+

    EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Kinney on the Possibility of Developing an Original ‘Wimpy Kid’ Story for D+

    Since author Jeff Kinney first published Diary of a Wimpy Kid in 2007, more than 275 million copies of his Wimpy Kid books have been sold worldwide. Earlier this year, the 18th book in the series, No Brainer, was published and now a third animated feature, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever, is set to debut on Disney Plus on December 8th. Despite being in the business for nearly two decades, it seems like Kinney is just getting started. The author told us that there are no plans to end the series and that he hopes to ultimately adapt each of his books into an animated feature for the streaming service but for a creative mind like Kinney, there are certainly a lot of ideas that haven’t made it into a book just yet and new ideas being generated by the day. So what to do with all those ideas?

    Working alongside Disney to develop the series of animated Wimpy Kid features means that while Kinney serves as the writer and producer of each project he’s also one half of a creative partnership with a studio that has its own streaming service. While talking to Kinney about his latest project, we wondered if Kinney had considered creating an original Wimpy Kid story for Disney Plus.

    I hadn’t thought of that,” expressed a genuinely pensive Kinney, “but I wouldn’t be too surprised if they approached me with that idea. Sometimes you find…like I said, this time around they were like ‘we really could use a holiday story’ and if I hadn’t written one before, I think that Disney probably would have asked me to write one. So that would be interesting to have a feature that’s not in the Wimpy Kid canon.

    While the author was clearly open to the idea, he quickly indicated that if he ever did create a project for the streamer, he wouldn’t forget about his first love: the Wimpy Kid books. “What I’d probably do is say, ‘Ok, sure I’ll do that but I’m also gonna make this into a book.‘” said Kinney, “because I want to sort of duplicate my efforts.” Given Kinney’s willingness to try something new and the success of the series of animated features on the streaming service so far, it would seem anything’s possible.

    Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever debuts on Disney Plus at 12 AM PST/3 AM EST on December 8th.

    About Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever

    Get ready for the Wimpiest Christmas ever! The original animated adventure, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever, the latest animated movie based on Jeff Kinney’s wildly successful book series, will premiere December 8, 2023, exclusively on Disney+. The film is a hilarious and heartfelt holiday tale centered around everyone’s favorite disaster-prone middle school student.

    The winter holidays are turning out to be especially stressful for Greg Heffley this year. After
    accidentally damaging a snowplow while making a snowman with best friend Rowley Jefferson, Greg worries he won’t get the new video game console he so desperately wants for Christmas. To make matters worse, he gets snowed in with his family, including his grumpy older brother Rodrick and annoying younger brother Manny.

    Directed by Luke Cormican (Teen Titans Go!) and written and produced by Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever features the voices of Wesley Kimmel (The Mandalorian), Spencer Howell (Ithaca), Chris Diamantopoulos (Beavis and Butt-Head), Erica Cerra (Power Rangers), and Hunter Dillon (Deadpool 2).

    The Characters

    Wesley Kimmel (The Mandalorian) is the voice of Greg Heffley, the disaster-prone middle
    school student having a stressful winter holiday. He is trying to be on his best behavior so he will get the new video game console he desperately wants for Christmas but gets into trouble with best friend Rowley Jefferson when they damage a snowplow while innocently building a snowman.

    Spencer Howell (Ithaca) voices Rowley Jefferson, who enjoys spending the winter holidays
    inside sipping hot cocoa and singing Christmas carols with his parents, eagerly anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus on the big night. He is an unwilling accomplice to Greg Heffley’s snowplow cover-up.

    Erica Cerra (Power Rangers) is the voice of Greg Heffley’s mother, Susan, who lives for the
    Christmas holiday season and all its traditions. She is happiest when the family can celebrate the Yuletide season together.

    Chris Diamantopoulos (Beavis and Butt-Head) voices Frank, Greg Heffley’s father, who is so busy anticipating a massive winter snowstorm that he is missing out on the family’s holiday
    traditions that are so important to his wife Susan.

    Hunter Dillon (Deadpool 2) is the voice of Greg’s older brother, Rodrick Heffley, who is spending the winter holidays lazy and unmoving from the couch until he decides he will find the culprits wanted by the police so he can take the reward money for himself.

    Lisa Ann Walter (Abbott Elementary) voices Gabby, who drives a snowplow to make extra
    money for the holidays. She is a single mother to her son Tyler, who is the light of her life.

    Elfriendo is a homemade doll from Susan Heffley’s childhood who keeps watch over children and reports any bad behavior to Santa and his elves at the North Pole.

    The Filmmakers

    Jeff Kinney (Writer/Producer) is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a
    Wimpy Kid series and the Awesome Friendly Kid series. He is a six-time Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award winner for Favorite Book and has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England, where he and his wife own a bookstore named An Unlikely Story.

    Luke Cormican’s (Director) numerous animated credits include over 78 episodes of Teen Titans Go, on which he served as writer, producer, and director, as well as The Penguins of
    Madagascar
    , Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, The Buzz on Maggie, and Ren and Stimpy Adult
    Party Cartoon, among others. Cormican also served as head of story on Teen Titans Go to the Movies.

    John Paesano (Composer) is a BAFTA-winning, Emmy®-nominated composer with a range of credits that include The Maze Runner film trilogy, both of PlayStation’s Spider-Man videogames, 50 episodes of Marvel’s Defenders and Daredevil and 100 episodes of
    the How to Train Your Dragon series (for which he won an Annie Award).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A–mvyHQhcc
  • The Skinny on Marvel Studios ‘Nomad’

    The Skinny on Marvel Studios ‘Nomad’

    It’s been almost three years since we uncovered evidence that Marvel Studios was developing a Nomad project. Following that discovery, COVID continued to impact production for quite a while and by the time Marvel Studios got back to SDCC in June of 2022, there had been no public acknowledgement of a Nomad project.

    Months ago, several of the trademarks that were filed for “Marvel Studios Nomad” turned up as “dead” and recently those “dead trademarks” made the rounds on social media and message boards. Between those dead trademarks and the lack of any sort of announcement by Marvel Studios, the general consensus seemed to be that the Nomad project was dead. Now it looks like it may only be mostly dead which is, as Miracle Max taught us, slightly alive.

    When Marvel Studios trademarks upcoming projects, they file multiple different trademarks. Some are for toys, some are for clothing, some are for cups and other types of merchandise; however, they also file one for “entertainment services” which essentially indicate they are making either a film or TV series.

    Entertainment services, namely, the development, creation, production, and distribution of digital multimedia and audio and visual content, namely, motion picture films, television programs, and multimedia entertainment and educational content; development, creation, production, distribution, and rental of audio and visual recordings; production of entertainment shows and interactive programs for distribution via audio and visual media, audio and video streaming, and electronic means; production and provision of motion pictures, entertainment news and entertainment information via electronic communication networks and audio and video streaming; providing online computer games; providing websites featuring a wide variety of general interest entertainment information relating to motion picture films, television programs, musical videos, film clips, photographs, and other multimedia materials; entertainment services, namely, providing online non-downloadable comic books and graphic novels; amusement park and theme park services; educational and entertainment services rendered in or relating to theme parks, namely, live stage shows, live amusement park shows, live performances by costumed characters, and production and presentation of live theatrical performances; production and presentation of live shows; theater productions; entertainer services, namely, live appearances by a professional entertainer

    As with everything else they make, Marvel Studios filed one of these for Nomad and while they’ve let all the other trademarks die, this one remains alive and well. In fact, the studio has taken measures to extend the trademark on several occasions including recently.

    What does this mean for the development of the project? Ultimately it may well mean nothing. Bob Iger‘s return to Disney in combination with a pair of major strikes have further slowed development of several of Marvel Studios announced projects. Given that Nomad has never been officially been acknowledged as a future MCU project, it could easily go by the wayside as part of the studio’s renewed commitment to quality over quantity.

    There are no firm details on what the project might even be about which means there’s no way to know if it was ever integral to the Multiverse Saga to begin with. At the end of the day, the existence of the trademark provides no assurance that any Nomad project will ever hit any screen, big or small; however, it does still have a pulse so don’t bury it just yet.

  • EXCLUSIVE: Wimpy Kid Creator Jeff Kinney Hopes to Make a Summer Movie for Disney Plus

    EXCLUSIVE: Wimpy Kid Creator Jeff Kinney Hopes to Make a Summer Movie for Disney Plus

    The December 8th launch of Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever marks the third consecutive year that Wimpy Kid creator Jeff Kinney has seen one of his beloved books adapted as an animated feature on Disney Plus. While the original plan was for an adaptation of The Last Straw to hit the streaming service in 2023, Kinney noted that he switched gears when Disney approached him about putting together a holiday special instead. With quite a bit of work already done on The Last Straw, Kinney is hopeful that the project will make its way to the streamer soon but the idea of working around a theme also struck a chord with the writer.

    While talking with us about Cabin Fever, Kinney revealed that as he works through developing each of his books into features for Disney Plus, he’s hoping to break out of the winter time frame and put together one of his projects as a summer movie.

    “I would love to do a summer movie, eventually,” said Kinney. And as fans of the series might expect, the author already has one story in mind. “I’m really hoping we get to tell lots of stories including Dog Days because I think a really good summer movie would be fun.”

    Published in 2009, Dog Days is the fourth book in the series. It details Greg’s adventures on the summer vacation between his seventh and eighth-grade years, one Greg remembers as possibly the worst summer ever. So far, each of the three Wimpy Kid animated features has been released in December but it’s possible that Disney would work with Kinney to roll one out during the summer allowing kids to take it in on their own summer vacation.

    Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever is now streaming on Disney Plus.

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Wimpy Kid’ Creator Jeff Kinney Details His Evolution as a Story Teller

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Wimpy Kid’ Creator Jeff Kinney Details His Evolution as a Story Teller

    When Jeff Kinney started writing the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series in the mid-2000s, it was a way for him to, in his own words, “sneak” his cartoons into books once his career as a newspaper cartoonist didn’t pan out. A decade and a half later, Kinney is still pushing out new ideas (the 18th book in the series, No Brainer, was published in October) while also working with Disney to adapt his stories into animated features for Disney Plus. Ahead of the release of the latest animated feature, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever (read Arlyn Murphy’s review here), Kinney talked with us about his career and the unique opportunity provided to him to be able to revisit his own works years later.

    It’s funny because I wrote the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books…when I first started writing them I was 28 years old,” began Kinney when asked to reflect on his career trajectory. “Now I’m 52. It’s a big jump forward in time. At first, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was writing–I was just trying to write jokes–just write a bunch of jokes, string them together into a reasonable plot but I never really cared about writing a good story,” he explained.

    Now I care a lot about writing a good story. So I think I’ve changed over time,” he reflected before adding that his work with Disney Plus adapting his own stories has fundamentally changed the way he works. “Movies really taught me how to structure a story properly,” explained Kinney, “and so now even when I write the books I’m using a cinematic framework to tell the stories.” With Kinney having no plans to stop writing new Wimpy Kid books any time soon, it looks as though fans have many more good stories to look forward to.

    Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever is now streaming on Disney Plus.

  • Season 2 of Lucasfilm’s Best Reviewed Live-Action Star Wars Series Looks to Be Delayed Until 2025

    Season 2 of Lucasfilm’s Best Reviewed Live-Action Star Wars Series Looks to Be Delayed Until 2025

    2023 was a full year for Star Wars fans. The third season of The Mandalorian delivered some killer episodes and left a power vacuum set to be filled by the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn as teased in the season finale of Ahsoka. A trio of animated series also hit Disney Plus with Tales of the Jedi joining the second seasons of The Bad Batch and Visions. Rumors had Lucasfilm increasing the volume of Star Wars projects in 2024 but an official preview of the studio’s Disney Plus slate listed only two projects set for release…and neither of them was the second season of one of the most beloved live-action projects yet.

    Andor took Star Wars fandom by storm when it debuted in 2022. Creator Tony Gilroy carefully crafted the first season of the Rogue One prequel to be the antithesis of Disney+’s other, popular live-action Star Wars series such as The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Rather than loading Andor with fan-favorite character cameos, Gilroy set up shop in a grimy corner of the universe inhabited by a plethora of brand-new characters. Akin to Game of Thrones, each of these new characters had their parts to play in the first twelve episodes of Andor. So dedicated to developing this corner was Gilroy that he often pushed Diego Luna’s title character to the periphery of the story to provide room for gems like Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen Rael to have their stories told as well. However, the season finale put Cassian on track to where he needs to be to help save the galaxy far, far away in Rogue One.

    Coming out of Star Wars Celebration 2023, it seemed Andor was on track to debut sometime late in the Summer of 2024; however, with Disney UK’s 2024 Disney+ preview only listing The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew as streaming releases, it now seems fans may be waiting until 2025 to catch the second season of Andor.

    While production on Season 2 of Andor was paused due to the WGA and SAG strikes, it was believed there were only a few weeks left of filming to be done, so it’s unlikely that’s the major driving factor behind the apparent move to 2025. It’s more likely that Andor is in a line of falling dominos related to Bob Iger’s return to Disney and his mandate that their biggest studios have a renewed focus on the quality of their streaming efforts. With Skeleton Crew moving into 2024 from an expected 2023 release, it seems there’s simply no room on the slate for a third live-action series and so Andor falls into 2025.

    About Andor

    The Andor series explores a new perspective from the Star Wars galaxy, focusing on Cassian Andor’s journey to discover the difference he can make. The series brings forward the tale of the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire and how people and planets became involved. It is an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue where Cassian will embark on the path that is destined to turn him into a rebel hero.

    The series is a prequel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It rewinds back five years from the events of Rogue One to follow Cassian Andor on his journey to get to the movie. We’ve
    done twelve episodes for the first season. The twelve episodes that we’ve done cover one year in time. We’re going to do another twelve that are going to take us over
    the next four years into Rogue One.

    Tony Gilroy on Season 1 of Andor

    Diego Luna (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Narcos: Mexico) returns as Cassian Andor, and Genevieve O’Reilly returns to her role of Mon Mothma. O’Reilly has a history with Star Wars, having first appeared in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and then Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, as well as voicing the character in Star Wars Rebels. They are joined by Stellan Skarsgård (Dune, Chernobyl), Adria Arjona (Morbius, Father of
    the Bride
    ), Denise Gough (Under the Banner of Heaven, Too Close), Kyle Soller (Poldark, Brexit), Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve, Baptiste) and Faye Marsay (Game of Thrones, Deep Water).

    The creator and showrunner for the series is Academy Award® and BAFTA-nominated
    writer/director/producer Tony Gilroy, who also wrote Episodes 1, 2, 3, 11 and 12. Gilroy, who co-wrote Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed feature films Michael Clayton and The Bourne Legacy and wrote the first three Bourne Films: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum.

  • Lucasfilm Leaves a Pair of Animated Series Off of Their 2024 Disney Plus Slate

    Lucasfilm Leaves a Pair of Animated Series Off of Their 2024 Disney Plus Slate

    Since Bob Iger returned to Disney in late 2022, the studio has made some changes to the way it manages Disney Plus. A renewed emphasis has been placed on the quality of the productions being rolled out on the streaming service and in 2024 that will mean fewer projects for some of Disney’s biggest studios. For Lucasfilm, which produces live-action and animated projects for the service, that means two highly anticipated series were left off the initial 2024 release slate.

    As it stands now, Lucasfilm will only roll out two live-action Star Wars projects next year (The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew) which means two animated projects, the third and final season of The Bad Batch and the second season of Tales of the Jedi, look to be delayed until 2025.

    The first 16 episodes of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars spinoff, The Bad Batch, debuted on Disney Plus on Star Wars Day 2021 and were followed by a 16-episode second season in January 2022. Tales of the Jedi, a 6-episode anthological series, was rolled out in October 2022. Both series were created by Lucasfilm’s new Creative Grand Admiral, Dave Filoni, who is also the key creative figure behind the studio’s New Republic Era stories such as The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka.

    Rumors had been making the rounds that new seasons of both series would find their way to Disney Plus in 2024; however, neither were to be found on Disney UK’s official 2024 preview of the streaming service. Given the constant state of flux in programming, it’s still entirely possible one or both of the series end up released at some point in 2024 though, for the time being, it looks like they are simply not part of the plan.

    About Star Wars: The Bad Batch

    Star Wars: The Bad Batch follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in The Clone Wars) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch—a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army— each possess a singular exceptional skill that makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable
    crew.

    Star Wars: The Bad Batch is executive produced by Dave Filoni (The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Clone Wars), Athena Portillo (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels), Brad Rau (Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Resistance), Jennifer Corbett (Star Wars Resistance, NCIS) and Carrie Beck (The Mandalorian, Star Wars Rebels) with Josh Rimes (Star Wars Resistance, Star Wars: Visions) and Alex Spotswood (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels) as producers. Rau is also serving as supervising director with Corbett as head writer and Matt Michnovetz as story editor.

    About Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi

    Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi is an anthology of six all-new animated shorts produced by Lucasfilm Animation and created by Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels). Based on Star Wars and characters created by George Lucas, the series is set during the prequel era and spotlights important moments in the lives of fan-favorite characters Ahsoka Tano and Jedi-turned-Sith Lord Count Dooku as they embark on respective paths toward heroism and villainy. Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi features the voices of Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano; Corey Burton as Count Dooku; Janina Gavankar as Ahsoka’s mother, Pav-ti; Micheál Richardson as young Qui-Gon Jinn; TC Carson as Mace Windu; Ian McDiarmid as Darth Sidious; Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn; Phil
    Lamarr as Bail Organa; Clancy Brown as Inq

    Dave Filoni is the creator, supervising director, executive producer, and writer of five of the six shorts: “Life and Death”; “Justice”; “The Sith Lord”; “Practice Makes Perfect”; and “Resolve.” Charles Murray and Élan Murray are the writers of “Choices.” Nathaniel Villanueva directs “Life and Death”; Charles Murray directs “Choices”; Saul Ruiz directs “Justice”; “The Sith Lord”; “Practice Makes Perfect”; and “Resolve.” In addition to Filoni, Athena Yvette Portillo and Carrie Beck are executive producers; Alex Spotswood and Josh Rimes are producers.

    Source: Disney UK

  • Lucasfilm Sets Two Star Wars Series for 2024 Release on Disney Plus

    Lucasfilm Sets Two Star Wars Series for 2024 Release on Disney Plus

    Lucasfilm will release two brand new Star Wars streaming series next year. According to an official release, The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew are slated to debut on Disney Plus in 2024. Neither series was given a release window in the announcement.

    The Acolyte will be Lucasfilm’s first live-action Star Wars project set during the High Republic era and “will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes but discovers the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.”

    Directed by Jon Watts (Marvel Studios Spider-Man trilogy), Skeleton Crew, which “tells the story of four kids who find themselves lost in the vastness of the galaxy trying to find their way home,” is set during the same New Republic era as The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. The series was originally set to debut in late 2023 but recent rumors have it facing a nearly one-year delay to the end of 2024.

    Some fans may be a bit disappointed to find out that neither a fourth season of The Mandalorian nor a second season of Andor are currently set for release in 2024. It was also believed that a second season of Tales of the Jedi, a canonical animated anthology, would debut in 2024 but there’s no mention of it in the release.

    Source: Disney UK

  • Marvel Studios Sets 2024 Streaming Slate

    Marvel Studios Sets 2024 Streaming Slate

    Through a press release via Disney UK, Marvel Studios 2024 streaming slate has been revealed.

    As has been expected for some time, 2024 will only see 3 Marvel Studios projects hit the streaming service: Echo, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries and X-Men ’97.

    Echo will kick off the year for the studio with all 5 episodes debuting simultaneously on Hulu and Disney + on January 10th. While no release date was given for Kathryn Hahn‘s Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, it’s expected to begin streaming in September. Live Darkhold Diaries, X-Men ’97, a revival of the beloved X-Men: The Animated Series, doesn’t have a firm release date but has long been rumored to be debuting “early in 2024.”

    Source: Disney + UK

  • The Ultimate List of What to Watch Before Season 2 of ‘What If…?’

    The Ultimate List of What to Watch Before Season 2 of ‘What If…?’

    Marvel Studios’ first canonical animated series, What If…?, is returning to Disney Plus for a second season. Season 2 will feature 9 more multiversal adventures that put a spin on familiar events from the Sacred Timeline. Season 1 memorably featured a universe where a quantum virus set zombies loose on Earth, one where Ultron won and another where Thanos was a Ravager and Season 2 promises to bring even more variety to the ever-expanding multiverse.  

    Marvel Studios is experimenting with an all-new, all-different rollout for Season 2 of What If…?, dropping one episode a day beginning on December 22nd. Before you start taking in that holiday treat, you’ve still got some time to prepare and so–as you’ve no doubt come to expect–Murphy’s Multiverse has put together The Ultimate List of What to Watch Before Season 2 of What If…?.

    Given the premise of What If…? is unlike that of any other Marvel Studios project, it only makes sense that the Ultimate List would reflect that and so it’s a little different than what we usually roll out.

    How It Started…

    Loki, Season 1: Episode 6-For All Time, Always

    The multiversal adventures of What If…? would never have taken place if Sylvie had not gotten all stabby-stabby with He Who Remains in the Season 1 finale of Loki. There’s no shame in rewatching every episode of both seasons of Loki, however, if you want to cut to the chase and get to the moment that each of the new timelines in which the adventures in What If…? take place, then you simply need to check out Season 1, Episode 6.

    How It Went…

    What If…?, Season 1

    Season 1 of What If…? originally seemed like an anthological collection of disparate stories spread out all over the newly formed Multiverse. Episodes dedicated to Captain Carter and Star-Lord T’Chall were entertaining on their own merit but as the series progressed, the storylines began to converge as Uatu assembled great heroes from around the Multiverse. Some of those characters are set to return for Season 2 and reacquainting yourself with their stories will only add to your enjoyment of following their next steps.

    Where It’s Going Next…

    Undoubtedly, venturing back onto the branches of the multiverse to recall the events of Season 1 will be beneficial to your enjoyment of Season 2…but why stop there? New episodes means Uatu will be narrating stories from other branches–or maybe further exploring branches already seen in Season 1. While we refuse to get spoilery here, a list of episode titles made its way into the wild, allowing us to direct you toward some projects that might be worth revisiting before they become Nexus Events in Season 2.

    Listed in Disney +’s Timeline Order:

    Captain America: The First Avenger

    The Tesseract will play a major role in at least one episode of Season 2 when a Mohawk woman named Kahhori–at totally original character created for the show–discovers it on Earth centuries before TFA. Watching TFA provides some background on the object which continues to play a big part in the MCU throughout the Infinity Saga.

    Iron Man 3

    Happy Hogan saves Christmas!? An entire episode of Season 2 is dedicated to Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan and given that it’s set at Christmas it’s possible that it spins out of the events of Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 which takes place at Christmas because it’s Shane Black’s Iron Man 3. The Forehead of Security spent most of Iron Man 3 in a hospital bed after being near an Extremis soldier that went boom so this may be a way to give the character a new adventure during that time though we cannot confirm Iron Man 3 is the backdrop.

    Guardians of the Galaxy

    A pair of Season 2 episodes will deal with events from the Guaridans franchise but rewatching James Gunn‘s first–and best–MCU film should provide all the information you need about Peter Quill, Nebula and the Nova Corps.

    Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron

    Before Season 1 of What If…?, a leak indicated that one episode would find Tony Stark on Sakaar rather than the Hulk and Thor. That episode will be part of Season 2 but how did Stark get there? Our best guesses are that the wormhole created by the Tesseract in Avengers led him there OR he switches places with Hulk at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron and somehow finds his way to the junk heap. Watch them both because there’s no downside to watching the first team up again or rewatching a film that has held up much better than folks thought it might!

    Thor: Ragnarok and Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings

    As if she needed to be any more awesome, an episode of Season 2 will give Thor’s sister Hela, the Goddess of Death, access to the powerful Ten Rings! Her story as told in Ragnarok was absolutely fascinating and it’ll be very interesting to see how the rings augment her already unique powers.

    Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

    What If…? is a show about the Multiverse and 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness taught the audience that there’s no bigger threat to said Multiverse than Stephen Strange. Rewatch it because it’s awesome; rewatch it to meet some of those scary Strange Variants; rewatch it because Sam Raimi might be doing a lot more work with Marvel Studios in the future. One of those Variants–Strange Supreme–didn’t appear in the film but was a major player in Season 1 of What If…? and is confirmed to return in Season 2 so it’s good to remember that not all Stranges are good Stranges and also that good is relative in the Multiverse.

    Bonus Reading

    Marvel 1602

    A first in our Ultimate List series! For decades, Marvel Comics has been known as the House of Ideas. While Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created an enormous sandbox full of rich characters, many writers over the years have thought outside the (sand)box and told stories in alternate universes much like the ones imagined in What If…? One of the most divisive efforts to tell these alt-universe stories came from the mind of Neil Gaiman who decided to bring about the age of heroes 400 years earlier than Lee and Kirby! Published in 2003, Marvel 1602 reinterprets the origins and lives of characters such as the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Captain America and more during a time when superstition reigned supreme over science. If you have time for a quick, 8-issue romp through the 17th century from the mind of one of comic’s most singular authors, pick up Marvel 1602 at your LCS or check it out on Marvel Unlimited before seeing how it’s adapted in Season 2!

    About What If…? Season 2

    The Watcher returns to season two of Marvel Studios’ What If…? when the animated series
    begins streaming on Disney+ on Dec. 22. And in the spirit of the holiday season, fans are
    invited to unwrap a new episode nightly for nine nights.

    Season two of What If…? continues the journey as The Watcher guides viewers through the
    vast multiverse, introducing brand new and familiar faces throughout the MCU. The series
    questions, revisits and twists classic Marvel Cinematic moments with an incredible voice cast that includes a host of stars who reprise their iconic roles. Featuring fan-favorite characters this season like Nebula, Hela and Happy Hogan, episodes are directed by executive producer Bryan Andrews with executive producer AC Bradley as head writer.