The following article contains spoilers for What If…?.
The MCU is the place where some of cinema’s wildest action fantasies take place. With an almost unlimited budget, endless resources, and the drive to continue pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved with CGI and stunt mastery, but What If Marvel Studios didn’t have to worry about the complications of real-world logistics?
For anyone wondering what that would look like, What If…? is the answer as Disney Plus’ latest Marvel series is freed from the shackles of reality (in every possible way) to put together entirely new scenarios that would otherwise be impossible in the mainline MCU. Not to be confused, both Shang-Chi's CGI and animation are often incredibly demanding and time-consuming tasks, but among the many advantages of the latter is the ability to craft scenes that might otherwise be left on the storyboard for movies.
What If…?’s finale is the definitive proof of this as nearly the entire episode revolves around a massive threat to the multiverse, a full 36 minutes that would cost hundreds of millions to shoot with real actors, but one that is massively simplified in this format. Whether it’s that shot of Black Widow and Captain Carter dual-tackling Infinity Ultron, or just the plaint might of Doctor Strange Supreme’s animated magic, it all comes together to create an epic scenario that successfully delivers the notion that the Guardians of the Multiverse are facing something much worse than Thanos.
As massive and expensive as it may look, Avengers: Endgame’s Battle of Earth is roughly three minutes long, which is not an awful lot but it works within the context of what is already a very long movie. Conversely speaking, What If…?’s showdown with Infinity Ultron and the rest of the baddies that follow him runs for over 10 minutes of almost non-stop action, also with the added benefit that animation allows the viewer to keep track of what’s going on even better.
One of the biggest challenges in action and stunt choreography is not only scripting something that looks impressive, but also making it seem both believable (at least within that world’s own rules) and easy to follow. The latter is where the line is drawn between say, F9 and other Fast and Furious movies, because depicting impressive action scenes isn’t that much of a challenge when there’s too much forgiveness for letting viewers get lost.
Artists that worked on What If…? take full advantage of this because they can always point the camera where it's needed, so there’s no chance of that happening. However, besides execution, What If…? also pays a lot of respect to the MCU’s own action legacy by borrowing and improving upon many of its most iconic scenes.
For example, the battle against Infinity Ultron takes several cues from the Thanos fight on Titan towards the end of Infinity War, Age of Ultron, and even the first Avengers movie, but watching it is a much smoother experience. Ever since its first episode, What If…? has used a very specific form of lighting on most of its fights, and that type of work shines even more when Natasha is about to conjure her inner Hawkeye to land the game-winning shot.
Of course, none of this means anything without a good villain and Infinity Ultron is arguably the most powerful being in the MCU, according to the way he’s depicted in the last two episodes. This Ultron took out more Avengers and planets than any other Marvel villain so far, and he did it in an effortless manner thanks to the extra might that’s allowed in What If…?’s animated world.
There’s really no limit to the number of energy blasts, magic, bullets, explosions, or even Marvel zombies, that can be on screen during any given What If...? sequence, and that’s something that really helps drive the idea that these are indeed the most powerful version of these Marvel characters that the audience has ever seen. As such, in the animated MCU everything gets turned up to 11 with Doctor Strange reaching in his most powerful form, Black Widow rocking the Red Guardian shield, Gamora sporting Thanos’ golden armor, and even Killmonger getting extended use of his Black Panther powers.
All of this could only make sense in an animated MCU, especially one tuned to What If…?’s sole proposition of imagining unimaginable. While it may be hard to think of where the series is headed for season two due to the nature of its finale, the fact of the matter is that there are very few rules is has to stick to.
Until Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness comes around fans won’t know if the events in What If…? somehow spill onto the rest of the MCU, yet in any case, series’ creators would do well to continue building on what they have. An essential part of that is continuing to raise the bar for what every Marvel character is capable, as with greater powers comes an even greater responsibility to deliver more exciting action.