Without getting into too many major spoilers, there are already some small online rumors that certain characters from Marvel Studios’ “What If?” animated series will appear in live-action. You’ll have to go digging for them yourself for details, but in the recent “What If?” press conference, the question was posed to the head writer A.C. Bradley and director Bryan Andrews pointedly and more often than once. While neither of them outright denied the question — will characters from “What If?” appear in live-action? — they did seem to vaguely hint at the idea not being out of the realm of possibility.
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The duo was asked point-blank, what are the odds of seeing Captain Carter (aka Peggy Carter, still voiced by Haley Atwell) in the MCU? “Interesting…” director Bryan Andrews said coyly.
For those unaware, the first episode of “What If?” poses the question, “What if Peggy Carter got the supersoldier serum instead of Steve Rogers?” That question leads to the emergence of Captain Carter, a Captain America-like hero that is a female during WWII, dealing with the issues of misogyny and discrimination while also trying to win a war. In the conversation, tip-toeing around the answer, they also said Captain Carter is definitely going to be featured in the second season of “What If?”
“We realized, early on in development, as we were starting to get[ head writer A.C. Bradley’s] scripts, and starting to look at the arc of the series, that there was gonna be a character that bubbled up and became more important,” executive producer Brad Winderbaum explained. “Not more important than the rest, but had a strong relationship with The Watcher, who is our-who is really our driving force behind the series. And that’s Captain Carter. And w-we realized, as we started developing the second season, that Captain Carter was gonna be the character we would revisit.”
Asked again later on in the press conference if “What If?” would tie into the live-action MCU, the creators were a bit more allowing in their answers. Yes? Can it happen?
“Yeah, I mean, without going into great detail, I can tell you that ‘What If?,’ as a project, as a story that exists in the MCU is as important as any other,” Winderbaum said, “It’s into that same tapestry, so those fun threads are gonna be… there’s a lot of potential there.”
The connections to the MCU talk probably should have ended there, but Winderbaum even circled back to it again during a question about the stand-alone nature of the stories. “If you were to watch any episodes of ‘What If?’ and that was the only episode you watched, you get a full experience, hopefully, with character lives a rich life and changes dynamically and-and is entertaining and emotionally satisfying,” he explained. “But it’s also Marvel, you know? And, as we know, there’s always strange alchemy at work, so never know. They could all connect. We’ll have to see.”
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Are Marvel Studios’ creators secretive about the future? Shocking, to say the least. So, if you’re interested in seeing the potential live-action debuts of some of these animated superhero creations, stay tuned. “What If?” debuts on Disney+ on August 11. Meanwhile, watch the first two clips from the series below.