Marvel's 'What If...?' Series Will Feature Plenty Of Marvel Cinematic Universe Cameos
It's no secret that Marvel's What If...? animated series is bringing in the stars of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to help tell alternate stories featuring the heroes and villains they've played on the big screen. Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Rudd, Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, the late Chadwick Boseman, and more will all reprise their Marvel characters in various parallel universe takes on Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, The Winter Soldier, Loki and Black Panther. But there will also be plenty of other cameos by actors and actresses from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
What If...? head writer A.C. Bradley recently responded to a question on Twitter about the show's cast:
Spoilers! But I can say that there are more than a few surprising MCU cameos... and characters can and do pop up in more than one episode!
— A.C. Bradley (@TheAshBradley) January 3, 2021
Having a variety of other Marvel Cinematic Universe cameos in What If...? makes perfect sense when you consider what the series is doing with the characters we're all familiar with. Bradley previously explained (via Discussing Film) how we'll end up seeing so many MCU characters throughout these episodes, even if they aren't explicitly focused on them. The writer said:
"Kevin said that we will be exploring every movie in a new way, but not every episode is about one movie if that makes sense. On the reel, there is this image of a Star-Lord T'Challa because we wanted to see what if the worlds of Black Panther and the Guardians of the Galaxy collided? That was taking two universes, two to three movies, kind of twisting them in new ways."
So even though Chadwick Boseman will be the star of that episode, it's not out of the realm of possibility for us to also hear Black Panther co-stars Letitia Wright as Shuri or Luipta Nyong'o as Nakia, though they haven't been named among the cast yet. We already know Michael Rooker is back as Yondu along with Sean Gunn as Kraglin, but perhaps more Guardians of the Galaxy cast members will pop up, too. No one is off limits for a series like this, especially with characters popping up in multiple episodes.
As of now, here are all of the Marvel stars confirmed to appear in Marvel's What If...? animated series:
There are probably plenty more voices we'll hear in the series, but we'll probably have to wait until there's a new trailer to know more. Marvel's What If...? doesn't have a specific release date yet, but it's expected sometime in mid-2021. In the meantime, take a closer look at the trailer that was revealed back in December.