What If…? Season 3 Features A Mjolnir-Wielding Storm, But The Director Shares Another Popular X-Men Character He Wishes Had Been Included In The Marvel Series

by

As a cinephile who has been following Marvel since the early days of X-Men comics and cartoons, I must say that the latest season of What If…? has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions. The inclusion of Storm from X-Men: The Animated Series is a delightful surprise, especially seeing her wield Mjolnir with such grace. However, hearing Bryan Andrews’ wish for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to make an appearance in this season makes me feel like a kid who missed the last piece of candy on Halloween.

Just a few days ago, Season 3 of “What If…?” premiered on Disney+, with a new episode being released daily. However, due to this rapid release schedule, the Marvel TV series is almost wrapping up, as it’s ending for reasons connected to a larger universe. At present, one character yet to make an appearance is Storm, portrayed by Alison Sealy-Smith from “X-Men: The Animated Series” and “X-Men ’97.” In this incarnation, Ororo Monroe wields Mjolnir, and it’s exciting that we’ll see her utilize Thor’s hammer before “What If…?” concludes. One of the show’s directors expressed a desire for other well-loved X-Men characters to have been included as well.

Bryan Andrews, responsible for directing four episodes in Season 3 of “What If…?”, including today’s Shang-Chi and Kate Bishop’s Old West escapade as well as the season finale, expressed a desire to include Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine character in the series. Regrettably, due to the lengthy development process of the show, this was not an option for Andrews and his team at the time they were working on it. He explained that this realization came later.

Reflecting on the situation now, it seems we were regretting our actions a bit, as we didn’t realize how long these projects would take. We thought we might have been able to include more mutant characters this season, but we didn’t know Disney was going to bring back all the Fox properties at that time, so we missed out on potentially including Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Oh well, maybe there will be opportunities for more collaborations in the future. At least we managed to include Storm, which is still cool!

Could you envision this scenario? This year, we might see Logan, played by Hugh Jackman, unsheath his adamantium claws once more for the Marvel film titled “Deadpool & Wolverine“, which is the 34th movie in the series. But, what if Wolverine had been part of another adventure within the Marvel multiverse before the end of 2024? Unfortunately, despite the fact that the team behind “What If… ?” managed to secure Storm for Season 3, bringing Wolverine into play didn’t seem practical at the time. It’s a pity, as it would have marked Jackman’s first voice role for the character in an animated project, following more than 20 years of portraying him on screen.

It’s great that we didn’t run out of lively Wolverine scenes this year, with Cal Dodd’s portrayal of the superhero appearing frequently in X-Men ’97 Season 1. The location of this Wolverine, along with Storm and Morph, is still unknown as we anticipate Season 2. However, Storm will be making a stormy impact in more ways than one in What If… ?, even without the characters having previously appeared in the MCU live-action. As mentioned in the article, Storm’s presence in What If… ? is intriguing because she is the first character from Marvel to debut here who hasn’t already made a live-action appearance in the MCU.

What If… ? comes to an end this Sunday, December 29. Not to worry, as there are plenty of upcoming Marvel TV shows to look forward to on the 2025 TV schedule and beyond.

Read More

2024-12-28 04:37