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The galaxy.
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To your eyes,
a hundred billion points of light.
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But where you see light,
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I see worlds
and the countless stories that fill them.
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What you call destiny is just an equation.
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The product of variables,
right place, right time,
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or in some instances,
the wrong place at the wrong time.
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What if one choice changed everything?
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What if every reality
came down to one single moment?
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Join me. Explore the multiverse
and ask the question,
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"What if...?"
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Perfect. Thank you.
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We were looking at
how to grow, how to expand,
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how to evolve post Endgame
and into Phase Four.
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And we had tons of ideas
for features and for follow-ups
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to existing characters,
and introducing new characters.
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But it was Disney Plus
and the idea of Disney Plus
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that really allowed us
to do things we hadn't done before.
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We had to think what ideas
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are worth doing in animation
that we couldn't do anywhere else.
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And it was Brad Winderbaum
who came into my office and said,
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"What about doing a What If...?"
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"We have so many fans now,
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"we have so many people that have watched
our movies multiple times,
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"everybody knows how things happen,
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"how Iron Man became Iron Man,
how Cap became Cap,"
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that the What If...? series from comics
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was always such a great way
of putting a spin on it.
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What If...? as a concept
and as a comic book
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is something that would
always come up in conversation.
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Uh, I can think back
to the earliest retreats.
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We would think about What If...?
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Just in terms
of not necessarily adapting it,
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but how many great stories
came out of the comic book.
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And how so many of those stories
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actually became canon
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within the main continuity
of the Marvel Comics universe.
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Speaking from my own personal experience,
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and this is something
that other people have said as well,
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What If...? was a bit of a gateway
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You know, I loved Ghost Rider growing up,
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and I think
the first Ghost Rider I picked up
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was the "What if Danny Ketch's sister
became Ghost Rider instead of him?"
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Then I was like, "This is awesome!"
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And then I'd read all that Danny Ketch,
Ghost Rider run. You know?
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And I think a lot of people
had a similar experience of What If...?
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It introduced you to characters
you wouldn't normally read.
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In kind of abstracting them,
it made them new.
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So there was a lower barrier of entry.
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You didn't feel like you needed to read
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the 60 comics leading
up to that one storyline.
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It was its own unique thing
that you could experience as a newcomer.
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I remember when I was a kid,
getting some of the comics
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and whether it's like,
you know, Conan in New York...
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with Howard the Duck,
or, you know, crazy stuff.
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It was almost like
it was Marvel's Twilight Zone of the time.
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And I think its heyday was really
in the '70s, a little bit in the '80s.
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It still has gone on, but those
were the ones to really remember.
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I think it was a testing ground
for certain stories,
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certain possible ways they can possibly go
with various characters,
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you know, trying it out, you know,
safely in this little one-off comic.
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And then if it struck a chord,
they can run with it.
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So, for example, like,
"What if the Hulk was smart?"
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and that eventually
became a whole storyline of its own with,
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like, Smart Hulk and all this business.
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And that's happened with, actually,
quite a few of the What If...? titles.
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So, um, there is a lineage there,
but for our show,
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we're not borrowing anything
that was pre-done in the comic.
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We just came up with new stuff,
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since it's born directly
out of the MCU specifically.
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So we're not just riffing
on the comic characters per se,
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we're riffing on the Marvel movie
cinematic version of those characters.
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Whoa.
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I got visual on the intruder.
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He's a Caucasian male, mid-20s with...
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really great hair.
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Excuse me?
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We had been working with Bryan Andrews
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for many years at Marvel Studios.
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He had boarded
some of our most iconic action sequences.
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I worked with him on Ant-Man 1
when he designed
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Scott Lang's first descent into
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the quantum realm
at the end of that movie.
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And he had taken a big hand most recently
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as part of the story room
that cracked the finale of Endgame,
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which was a combination of storyboard
artists and Chris and Steve, the writers.
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And frankly,
when I pitched What If...? to Kevin,
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and things were happening so fast,
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I just called Bryan, who I knew, and said,
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"Hey, dude,
do you wanna work on this together?"
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And his response was,
"Well, yeah, man, of course."
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You know, my brothers and I
grew up loving all kinds of animation,
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but we also grew up loving Marvel.
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I mean, we had
How To Draw The Marvel Way, you know?
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We were huge fans of the paintings
of Frank Frazetta and the rest of it.
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But it's all in that
same kind of action-y, adventure,
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you know, bigger-than-life mythos stuff,
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and the Marvel comics
were definitely an inspiration, you know.
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Certain artists
would rise above others in our minds,
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whether it's, like, you know,
Kirby, or... or whoever else.
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It's like there're certain
artists that just captured
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your imagination in those drawings,
in those panels.
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And, um, to think that
so many years later,
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working in
the live action stuff, it's like,
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"Oh, I used to draw all those characters
when I was a kid."
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But here I am, working on it now
for the Cinematic Universe,
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which is already kind of, like,
"Well, that's an amazing dream."
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But then, now also
doing it in an animated show
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that's revisiting those characters,
and it's, like, that's like, "Wait, what?"
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It's pretty amazing.
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One of the interesting things
that happened
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Tinkering with time can weaken
the very fabric of the universe.
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The key to the stories
that were chosen
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is that they were all
character-based stories,
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and they all drove at the human heart.
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If you look at her work
on Trollhunters and 3Below,
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you see a writer who,
no matter what the big,
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And that's something
we always try to do in the movies,
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and each episode of What If...?
Is gonna try to do.
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For a minute, I really thought
it was you and me against the world.
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We're not fighting the same battles, Tony.
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The first few weeks, it was basically
me and the other executive producers
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which is Brad Winderbaum
and Bryan Andrews. And it was... camp.
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"What if Thor was never banished?"
"What if Ultron won?"
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I'm going to bring about
peace in our time...
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And once we got those out of our
system, we started then playing more with
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"What if Yondu kidnapped
the wrong kid instead of Peter Quill?"
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What happens next?
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Whatcha doing out there
all by yourself anyway?
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Exploring the world.
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Sounds fun.
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But why stop at one world, huh?
When we can show you all of them?
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Once you realize what the show can be,
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it's almost impossible not to ideate.
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You just... Your brain just starts
to explore every corner of the universe.
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That's something that made
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the whole development process
of this series so euphoric,
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was that you get in a room with people,
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and it was just idea,
idea, idea, idea, idea,
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'cause almost every event
could be reconceived
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and remixed into
its own What If...? story.
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It wasn't just "what if,"
it was also "then what?"
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So every pitch that we came up with,
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every idea that we conceived of
had two parts.
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It had the "what if," which was
essentially the inciting incident,
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and it had the, "then what,"
which is the actual story.
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What in heavens?
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And as we developed
the stories in the series,
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the "then whats" became the real emotional
bedrock of the stories we were telling.
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You're my hero, Steve.
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I mean, you're a hero.
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Hmm.
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You're my hero, too.
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The heart of the characters
always has to remain the same.
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If T'Challa is in Wakanda or chilling
with the Ravagers in outer space,
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he is always the once and future king.
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Should we be bowing?
I feel like we should we bowing.
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I mean, unless we should be kneeling.
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- Neither is necessary.
- Please.
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It doesn't matter
where in the world Tony Stark is,
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Pepper Potts is his North Star.
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Lot of people come around looking to get
their moment in the sun with Tony Stark,
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he will go to the ends of the earth
to do what he believes is right.
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Hey, I need a hand! Come on,
help me get him out of here!
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No. You gotta get me in the suit.
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That's where we always kind of start with.
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Like, we go in different directions,
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but we stay true to the characters
as much as possible.
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I believe that in this universe,
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as in every other, hope never dies.
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One of the things
we're exploring in Phase Four,
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which we've talked about,
is the Multiverse.
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And What If...? as almost every episode
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is narrated by the character, the Watcher,
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a very important character in the comics
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that we've never really
seen much of in the MCU.
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Briefly, we saw some Watchers,
there's a little cameo with Stan Lee
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in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
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Anyway, before I was
so rudely interrupted...
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We know the way it worked
in the movies we watched.
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He's showing us
other ways it could have gone.
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In a multiverse of infinite possibility,
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is your destiny determined by your nature
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or by the nature of your world?
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We knew that we were gonna do the Watcher.
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The Watcher is a big part of What If...?
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We needed this guide to help us
navigate these vast new realities.
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And the voice we all heard in our head
was Jeffrey Wright from day one.
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I am the Watcher.
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Where humans see chaos,
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I see the crucible that would transform
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this collection of individuals
into a team of heroes.
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The Watcher kind of serves
as a Rod Serling to The Twilight Zone.
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Kind of narrating the events,
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but also a sometimes-passive-
sometimes-not participant.
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Oh, you're so close.
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The answer is right there.
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The Watcher is a celestial,
extraterrestrial being.
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And I think he was introduced,
if I'm not mistaken,
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in a Fantastic Four comic in 1963
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where we discover him on the moon,
and he's introduced on the cover
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as "The Most Dramatic Being."
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Humanity, so eager,
so willing to face the impossible,
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yet blind to the bigger picture.
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00:11:14,923 --> 00:11:19,595
The language is very cool,
and it kind of sp...
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You know, it speaks to a certain tone.
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00:11:23,473 --> 00:11:27,686
He's obviously
got to have a kind of strength
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00:11:27,769 --> 00:11:32,316
and a kind of, you know,
gravitas and power and all that stuff.
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00:11:32,399 --> 00:11:33,984
Time.
210
00:11:34,067 --> 00:11:35,444
Space.
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00:11:35,527 --> 00:11:36,653
Reality.
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It's more than a linear path.
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It's a prism of endless possibilities.
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I like the idea of doing animation,
um, of using the voice really as,
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00:11:48,373 --> 00:11:51,835
you know, from my perspective,
as, you know, the whole character.
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00:11:51,918 --> 00:11:55,130
I'd really just pretty much
do what I do with any script though,
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00:11:55,213 --> 00:11:58,425
in anything, is just try
to find the music that's on the page
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and figure out if I can play it, you know?
219
00:12:01,511 --> 00:12:02,512
I am the Watcher.
220
00:12:03,221 --> 00:12:06,975
I am your guide
through these vast new realities.
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Follow me and ponder the question...
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00:12:11,021 --> 00:12:12,022
"What if?"
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00:12:12,731 --> 00:12:18,028
It was a really organic and kind of,
you know, methodical process
224
00:12:18,111 --> 00:12:21,490
of talking it through at first
and trying to give some ideas about,
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00:12:21,573 --> 00:12:25,410
you know, how I'd like a,
you know, a character like this to sound.
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00:12:25,494 --> 00:12:30,207
I think often
when you have a character like this in,
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you know, in kind of the history of,
you know, shows and movies,
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we make these certain assumptions about
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00:12:37,214 --> 00:12:39,549
what that character
should sound like, you know?
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Very often it's some, you know, old...
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You know, when we think
of power and wisdom and all of this,
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we think, well,
we go to the UK for some reason.
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We think of Brits.
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It's, like, well, you know, um...
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I don't know
if the British necessarily have,
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00:12:56,274 --> 00:12:58,443
like, the monopoly on all those things.
237
00:12:58,527 --> 00:13:02,447
So, how can we find
some other tones and rhythms and things
238
00:13:02,531 --> 00:13:07,828
that bring all of that, um,
that power to the character
239
00:13:07,911 --> 00:13:11,832
but are grounded in maybe some different
rhythms and some different notes?
240
00:13:11,915 --> 00:13:13,792
And that was a fun conversation to have.
241
00:13:13,875 --> 00:13:17,003
A genius battled
his demons both inside and out,
242
00:13:17,879 --> 00:13:21,133
while the world
met the monster hiding in the man.
243
00:13:21,967 --> 00:13:25,387
And a godly Prince fell to Earth.
244
00:13:25,470 --> 00:13:29,057
He's both the... the guardian,
245
00:13:29,141 --> 00:13:34,146
but also the observer
of what happens across the Multiverse.
246
00:13:34,229 --> 00:13:37,649
There's a running joke in the comic books.
He says he'll never interfere.
247
00:13:37,732 --> 00:13:40,777
Wait five pages,
and there he is in the middle of it.
248
00:13:43,530 --> 00:13:46,575
And in the comics,
he got downright goofy at times
249
00:13:46,658 --> 00:13:48,201
and involved all the time.
250
00:13:48,285 --> 00:13:51,955
We're going to acknowledge those things,
but slowly over time.
251
00:13:52,038 --> 00:13:53,415
Maybe not the goofiness.
252
00:13:53,498 --> 00:13:55,125
But we want to play with the conceit
253
00:13:55,208 --> 00:13:58,128
that the being is mysterious
for the first initial episodes,
254
00:13:58,211 --> 00:14:02,674
and we start seeing more and more
of him as the episodes play out.
255
00:14:03,258 --> 00:14:06,678
Uh, so by the end
he's actually full-figured.
256
00:14:06,761 --> 00:14:09,973
We really see him. We really know like,
"Here's this alien being,"
257
00:14:10,056 --> 00:14:12,726
and he might actually
get involved for the...
258
00:14:12,809 --> 00:14:15,145
For him, what might be the first time.
259
00:14:15,228 --> 00:14:16,980
You want me to say it?
260
00:14:17,063 --> 00:14:19,733
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
I wanna hear you say it.
261
00:14:21,568 --> 00:14:23,111
Okay.
262
00:14:23,194 --> 00:14:25,071
I can't believe I'm about to say this.
263
00:14:26,031 --> 00:14:27,449
I see now.
264
00:14:28,617 --> 00:14:30,410
I need your help.
265
00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:34,456
The visual aesthetic and the storytelling
266
00:14:34,539 --> 00:14:36,249
really begin with Bryan Andrews.
267
00:14:36,333 --> 00:14:39,669
He is designing every frame of the show
268
00:14:39,753 --> 00:14:42,422
and working with a story team
of talented board artists
269
00:14:42,505 --> 00:14:47,761
to create the cinematic flow
of this series.
270
00:14:47,844 --> 00:14:50,597
And he's working
so closely with Ryan Meinerding
271
00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:54,351
to figure out
what these characters look like.
272
00:14:54,434 --> 00:14:55,685
Ryan is amazing.
273
00:14:55,769 --> 00:14:57,937
He's been the head
of Marvel Visual Development,
274
00:14:58,021 --> 00:14:59,898
I think since Iron Man.
275
00:14:59,981 --> 00:15:03,652
He's brilliant, and we've been
so lucky that he's been wanting to,
276
00:15:03,735 --> 00:15:05,987
like, come and play in our sandbox.
277
00:15:06,071 --> 00:15:09,949
I've always been a fan
of J.C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell
278
00:15:10,033 --> 00:15:12,369
and a lot of the older
American illustrators.
279
00:15:12,452 --> 00:15:14,746
And when Bryan and Brad pitched the notion
280
00:15:14,829 --> 00:15:17,123
of using that as a basis
for the style of the show.
281
00:15:17,707 --> 00:15:19,626
I mean, that's my bread and butter.
282
00:15:19,709 --> 00:15:22,545
I love that stuff. So, trying
to find a way to create visuals
283
00:15:22,629 --> 00:15:25,882
for this project that are gonna
turn that illustrative style
284
00:15:25,965 --> 00:15:28,259
into an animated style
using our characters
285
00:15:28,343 --> 00:15:30,053
is just, it's been really a lot of fun.
286
00:15:31,054 --> 00:15:32,305
It's a good look on you.
287
00:15:32,389 --> 00:15:34,766
Really? You think I could pull it off?
288
00:15:34,849 --> 00:15:36,351
Maybe you'll grow into it.
289
00:15:36,434 --> 00:15:39,813
I was trained that there's no difference
between animation and live action,
290
00:15:39,896 --> 00:15:42,774
even though clearly
there are things that are different.
291
00:15:42,857 --> 00:15:46,569
But, at its core,
it's just all visual storytelling.
292
00:15:46,653 --> 00:15:49,155
It's composition within the picture frame.
293
00:15:49,239 --> 00:15:52,659
It's... it's emotion. It's character.
294
00:15:52,742 --> 00:15:56,704
Uh, and those things exist regardless
of whether you're doing a stop-motion,
295
00:15:56,788 --> 00:15:58,748
a 2D animated thing,
3D animated, live ac...
296
00:15:58,832 --> 00:16:00,083
It doesn't matter.
297
00:16:00,166 --> 00:16:04,003
And I've felt personally
that animation hasn't quite gone
298
00:16:04,087 --> 00:16:07,507
as cinematic here
in the States as it could.
299
00:16:07,590 --> 00:16:08,800
And Brad was in agreement,
300
00:16:08,883 --> 00:16:12,178
and we felt like, here's a way
that maybe if we play our cards right,
301
00:16:12,262 --> 00:16:14,472
if whatever we do,
whatever is in our brain,
302
00:16:14,556 --> 00:16:16,808
if we can get it out there onto the thing,
303
00:16:16,891 --> 00:16:18,309
maybe we could achieve that.
304
00:16:18,393 --> 00:16:21,438
Maybe we can, like,
move the bar a little bit,
305
00:16:21,521 --> 00:16:22,897
which would be awesome.
306
00:16:22,981 --> 00:16:26,276
Just for our own
personal love of the stuff.
307
00:16:26,359 --> 00:16:29,279
And so part of that style
we're chasing is something that is,
308
00:16:29,362 --> 00:16:31,739
you know, atmospheric and cinematic
309
00:16:31,823 --> 00:16:35,743
and something
that borrows from live action,
310
00:16:36,703 --> 00:16:40,790
photography, cinematic sense
and really apply it to animation.
311
00:16:40,874 --> 00:16:42,500
Looking for directions, sir?
312
00:16:42,584 --> 00:16:44,586
Because you seem to have lost your way.
313
00:16:45,753 --> 00:16:48,923
You would do best to kneel before a God.
314
00:16:49,007 --> 00:16:51,176
We don't really do that here.
315
00:16:52,051 --> 00:16:54,804
The stories that they're doing
are so great and so concise
316
00:16:54,888 --> 00:16:59,434
that the direction that I'm getting is,
like, sort of like, this is the character.
317
00:16:59,517 --> 00:17:02,562
This is the, you know,
the costume they would be in,
318
00:17:02,645 --> 00:17:04,272
we wanna twist it in this way.
319
00:17:04,355 --> 00:17:07,567
We're able to do some work that
hopefully is gonna land pretty quickly.
320
00:17:07,650 --> 00:17:11,988
It's also not only about character design
in sort of a live action sense of,
321
00:17:12,071 --> 00:17:15,241
like, "How is this character different
than what we've seen before?"
322
00:17:15,325 --> 00:17:18,912
But also, since we're trying
to develop a new animation style,
323
00:17:18,995 --> 00:17:22,749
sort of, like, how can we turn these
characters into animated characters
324
00:17:22,832 --> 00:17:25,835
in a way that still represents
the character from the film
325
00:17:26,044 --> 00:17:29,881
but gives them a new life
in sort of an animated form?
326
00:17:31,174 --> 00:17:32,675
Steve Rogers sent me.
327
00:17:32,759 --> 00:17:34,636
The name's Captain Carter.
328
00:17:35,678 --> 00:17:37,555
Another big decision for the show
329
00:17:37,639 --> 00:17:42,060
was that we were gonna chase character
likeness as opposed to actor likeness.
330
00:17:42,143 --> 00:17:43,978
And it's a hard thing to define
331
00:17:44,062 --> 00:17:47,899
because the two things
are so intrinsically linked.
332
00:17:47,982 --> 00:17:51,903
But we wanted to capture the spirit
of the character in the same way
333
00:17:51,986 --> 00:17:55,114
that the actor would capture the spirit
of the character on screen.
334
00:17:55,198 --> 00:17:56,824
And knowing that you're never gonna...
335
00:17:56,908 --> 00:17:58,993
It's not a photorealistic medium.
336
00:17:59,077 --> 00:18:00,995
So the questions became, like,
337
00:18:01,079 --> 00:18:04,123
"Well, what is Doctor Strange?
What is Tony Stark?"
338
00:18:04,207 --> 00:18:09,170
How to depict them in terms of their
evolution as a character on screen?
339
00:18:09,253 --> 00:18:14,008
I'll say this for the new guy,
he certainly makes for good TV. Right?
340
00:18:14,092 --> 00:18:16,886
A lot of this stuff is fun
because you can do pencil sketches
341
00:18:16,969 --> 00:18:18,721
and have them be
relevant for the projects,
342
00:18:18,805 --> 00:18:24,769
so starting with Skinny Steve
and, um, a version of Captain Carter.
343
00:18:24,852 --> 00:18:26,187
Um...
344
00:18:26,270 --> 00:18:29,482
You know, just started trying
to find things that were interesting
345
00:18:29,565 --> 00:18:32,110
about the characters' faces
from the live action setting
346
00:18:32,193 --> 00:18:33,736
and try to simplify them.
347
00:18:33,820 --> 00:18:36,572
Um, you know, going forward from there
348
00:18:36,656 --> 00:18:40,785
into finding like a look for a dark Thor.
349
00:18:40,868 --> 00:18:42,787
Oh, do me, do me.
350
00:18:42,870 --> 00:18:44,956
Yes, you do me.
351
00:18:45,039 --> 00:18:46,791
You do me and you too.
352
00:18:46,874 --> 00:18:48,918
Oh, you guys really get me.
353
00:18:49,001 --> 00:18:50,962
But yeah,
this is sort of the starting point,
354
00:18:51,045 --> 00:18:53,631
and I haven't sketched
all of them on paper.
355
00:18:53,715 --> 00:18:56,926
But I have done some of them.
And then transitioning into the computer,
356
00:18:57,009 --> 00:18:59,387
being able to color
and sort of refine them.
357
00:19:01,180 --> 00:19:03,433
Oh, here we go. Here we go.
358
00:19:03,516 --> 00:19:04,517
Wha...
359
00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:06,561
We definitely want to stand out.
360
00:19:06,644 --> 00:19:10,898
And there is a variety of animated product
being made these days,
361
00:19:10,982 --> 00:19:14,402
and a lot of it tends to be CG
and sometimes even,
362
00:19:15,194 --> 00:19:17,864
I guess they call it
two-and-a-half-D or 2D-3D,
363
00:19:17,947 --> 00:19:20,575
where it's like, it's 3D,
but it's made to look 2D.
364
00:19:20,658 --> 00:19:23,494
So you might have
your traditional backgrounds painted
365
00:19:23,578 --> 00:19:27,331
and the characters look as if
they're cel-painted on, but they're not.
366
00:19:27,415 --> 00:19:29,417
We're exploring a variety of techniques
367
00:19:29,500 --> 00:19:33,212
and whatever is going to help us achieve
the look we're going for, we'll use.
368
00:19:33,296 --> 00:19:37,967
But we wanna kind of hide it a bit
and make sure that it doesn't jump out.
369
00:19:38,050 --> 00:19:41,721
And, in our opinion, it felt like a lot of
the things that we were seeing,
370
00:19:41,804 --> 00:19:43,764
that stuff just jumps out, you know?
371
00:19:43,848 --> 00:19:45,850
And sometimes the 3D maybe isn't working.
372
00:19:45,933 --> 00:19:48,352
There's aspects that were pros and cons,
373
00:19:48,436 --> 00:19:51,689
so it seemed like the best way
to achieve what we wanted to achieve,
374
00:19:51,772 --> 00:19:55,443
which is to buckle down,
have some really hard discipline,
375
00:19:55,526 --> 00:19:57,403
just make something rad 2D,
376
00:19:57,487 --> 00:20:02,700
so that we would have the artistic freedom
to have it look as rich as we wanted.
377
00:20:05,077 --> 00:20:06,537
Packs quite a wallop, does it not?
378
00:20:10,166 --> 00:20:12,543
The earliest conversations
I had with Bryan Andrews
379
00:20:12,543 --> 00:20:13,586
were all about light.
380
00:20:13,669 --> 00:20:16,964
And quality of light
and how the light would kind of blow out
381
00:20:17,048 --> 00:20:18,925
and the atmosphere of the show itself.
382
00:20:19,008 --> 00:20:23,429
Bryan was searching
for this cinematic style,
383
00:20:23,512 --> 00:20:26,515
using bokeh lenses and anamorphic lenses
384
00:20:26,599 --> 00:20:29,101
or emulating them in an animated space
385
00:20:29,185 --> 00:20:31,646
to try to give the world of What If...?
386
00:20:31,729 --> 00:20:36,525
A real cinematic quality, um,
that we rarely see in animation.
387
00:20:36,609 --> 00:20:39,570
Play with light and shadow,
play with... Play with focus.
388
00:20:39,654 --> 00:20:42,156
Play with the fact that's like,
even though it's animated
389
00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:44,450
and we didn't shoot it
with an anamorphic lens,
390
00:20:44,533 --> 00:20:46,869
maybe we're making it look like we did,
391
00:20:46,953 --> 00:20:49,580
because that has a voice
and that has a language.
392
00:20:50,706 --> 00:20:53,125
We've grown up
watching movies shot a certain way,
393
00:20:53,209 --> 00:20:55,127
and now it's become second nature.
394
00:20:55,211 --> 00:20:58,547
So now when we see things
that are speaking that language,
395
00:20:58,631 --> 00:21:01,592
without even realizing it,
we'll start relating to that.
396
00:21:01,676 --> 00:21:03,928
Charge!
397
00:21:04,011 --> 00:21:06,180
Cinematic storytelling
is becoming a thing
398
00:21:06,263 --> 00:21:10,059
where you don't have to just go to a movie
to see cinematic storytelling.
399
00:21:10,142 --> 00:21:14,105
We're actually seeing it on the streaming
screen and the small screen,
400
00:21:14,188 --> 00:21:17,274
and there's so many shows
out now that are just borrowing
401
00:21:17,358 --> 00:21:19,110
the cinematic language.
402
00:21:19,193 --> 00:21:23,239
So they are, even though
they're quote-unquote episodes of a show,
403
00:21:23,322 --> 00:21:26,784
they feel like, in a way,
mini movies when they do it right.
404
00:21:37,003 --> 00:21:38,504
Wakanda forever!
405
00:21:38,587 --> 00:21:42,299
It's pretty exciting when you,
you know, see it all come together,
406
00:21:42,383 --> 00:21:44,051
and the laying on works,
407
00:21:44,135 --> 00:21:46,554
and everything layers
together well in this
408
00:21:46,637 --> 00:21:52,518
really beautiful, kind of,
richly cinematic quality to the animation.
409
00:21:52,601 --> 00:21:56,564
And there're some wonderful
sound effects that are used too,
410
00:21:56,647 --> 00:21:58,441
at times with the voice.
411
00:21:58,524 --> 00:22:01,736
And to see it all come together,
these kinds of diverse perspectives,
412
00:22:01,819 --> 00:22:06,031
diverse range of heroism and villainy.
413
00:22:06,115 --> 00:22:09,535
I think it's gonna be, uh,
pretty exciting stuff.
414
00:22:11,454 --> 00:22:13,956
You will listen to me.
415
00:22:15,458 --> 00:22:17,209
My mother is coming.
416
00:22:17,877 --> 00:22:18,878
Frigga?
417
00:22:18,961 --> 00:22:21,255
And she is not happy.
418
00:22:21,922 --> 00:22:25,676
Right off the bat,
there were some ideas that we had
419
00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:27,595
that became episodes in the show.
420
00:22:27,678 --> 00:22:33,309
Peggy Carter becoming Captain Carter
was a very, very early concept.
421
00:22:33,392 --> 00:22:38,230
Also, right on the heels of that,
in the "then what" half of the story was,
422
00:22:38,314 --> 00:22:40,065
well, then what happens to Steve Rogers?
423
00:22:40,149 --> 00:22:41,233
He stays skinny.
424
00:22:41,317 --> 00:22:43,110
She gets the Tesseract early.
425
00:22:43,194 --> 00:22:45,613
Howard Stark's there.
Maybe he builds an Iron Man suit.
426
00:22:45,696 --> 00:22:47,364
What powers it? Maybe the Tesseract.
427
00:22:47,448 --> 00:22:49,033
Suddenly, the HYDRA Stomper is born.
428
00:22:49,116 --> 00:22:50,117
Steve!
429
00:22:50,201 --> 00:22:51,952
Hey, Peggy! Now you owe me one.
430
00:22:52,036 --> 00:22:55,623
And then we get to tell
that story of the tragic love affair,
431
00:22:55,706 --> 00:22:58,584
this dance that Peggy Carter
and Steve Rogers have through time,
432
00:22:58,667 --> 00:23:01,754
where they don't ever
get to fulfill their relationship
433
00:23:01,837 --> 00:23:04,465
without some event that gets in the way.
434
00:23:04,548 --> 00:23:06,008
You owe me a dance lesson.
435
00:23:06,091 --> 00:23:08,594
Yes, Saturday night.
436
00:23:11,847 --> 00:23:14,183
Oh, it's a great story
because it is exploring
437
00:23:14,266 --> 00:23:16,268
the relationship between Steve and Peggy,
438
00:23:16,352 --> 00:23:18,687
with this time Peggy
being the Super Soldier.
439
00:23:18,771 --> 00:23:23,150
And it's also nice because
we get to have a female hero, superhero.
440
00:23:23,234 --> 00:23:25,319
And what does that look like in the 1940s?
441
00:23:25,319 --> 00:23:26,612
And that the Ravagers,
442
00:23:26,695 --> 00:23:29,782
who were a bunch of buffoons,
had accidentally gotten off course.
443
00:23:29,865 --> 00:23:31,158
Cool.
444
00:23:31,242 --> 00:23:33,827
And what if they kidnapped
T'Challa instead?
445
00:23:33,911 --> 00:23:36,163
- Ravagers!
- Ravagers!
446
00:23:36,247 --> 00:23:38,958
It quickly became
one of our super favorites.
447
00:23:39,041 --> 00:23:42,419
Just the idea of, like,
if T'Challa was out there in the universe,
448
00:23:42,503 --> 00:23:47,132
how much can he actually change
just by him being awesome?
449
00:23:47,216 --> 00:23:49,551
And everyone just wanting
to be part of his awesome.
450
00:23:49,635 --> 00:23:52,263
Wait. You are the Star-Lord.
451
00:23:52,346 --> 00:23:54,515
You saved my home world
from a Kree invasion.
452
00:23:54,598 --> 00:23:55,766
All in a day's work.
453
00:23:55,849 --> 00:23:59,478
No, it took several days.
Six, in fact. Let us take a picture.
454
00:24:00,729 --> 00:24:02,982
He was a man born to be king,
455
00:24:03,065 --> 00:24:06,485
even if he's with
the Ravagers, across the galaxy,
456
00:24:06,819 --> 00:24:11,031
The Ravagers are less space pirates
and more space Robin Hoods.
457
00:24:11,115 --> 00:24:12,491
You know as well as I,
458
00:24:12,574 --> 00:24:16,120
no treasure is worth as much
as the good that can be done with it.
459
00:24:16,203 --> 00:24:18,706
That's my boy.
460
00:24:18,789 --> 00:24:21,583
So you get Yondu,
but you get a slightly different Yondu.
461
00:24:21,667 --> 00:24:25,462
A Yondu that was influenced by T'Challa,
who had grown up in Wakanda.
462
00:24:26,130 --> 00:24:31,301
You get a Nebula who was changed
by her relationship with T'Challa,
463
00:24:31,385 --> 00:24:33,804
who she calls Cha-Cha,
which is very funny.
464
00:24:33,887 --> 00:24:37,057
Something Karen Gillan came up
with on the day during the record.
465
00:24:37,141 --> 00:24:40,019
And, most exciting, you've got Thanos.
466
00:24:40,102 --> 00:24:42,062
T'Challa here showed me there was more
467
00:24:42,146 --> 00:24:44,440
than one way to reallocate
the universe's resources.
468
00:24:44,523 --> 00:24:48,527
Sometimes the best weapon
in your arsenal is just a good argument.
469
00:24:48,610 --> 00:24:50,112
Aye, aye, Commander.
470
00:24:51,238 --> 00:24:55,159
Chadwick loved the idea of doing
the voice to T'Challa in the series.
471
00:24:55,242 --> 00:24:56,827
We sent him the scripts.
472
00:24:56,910 --> 00:24:58,370
He loved the voice of T'Challa.
473
00:24:58,454 --> 00:25:01,415
It was slightly different
than it was in the first film.
474
00:25:01,498 --> 00:25:06,128
He really was excited about evolving
and seeing where the character could go,
475
00:25:06,211 --> 00:25:11,050
and he loved the swagger that
the Star-Lord version of T'Challa had.
476
00:25:11,133 --> 00:25:15,929
And he came in numerous times
and did four episodes for us.
477
00:25:16,013 --> 00:25:20,601
You may be the soul of this ship,
but I am still the Captain.
478
00:25:20,684 --> 00:25:23,979
We are Ravagers.
We do not back down from a fight.
479
00:25:24,062 --> 00:25:29,985
In watching this, the over-riding thing
for me was just hearing his voice,
480
00:25:30,819 --> 00:25:33,030
um, as that character again.
481
00:25:33,864 --> 00:25:37,242
Um, just the mysticism of the character,
482
00:25:37,326 --> 00:25:42,206
and really a kind of mysticism
that has become his life.
483
00:25:42,289 --> 00:25:45,125
It's a really...
It's a really wonderful blend.
484
00:25:45,209 --> 00:25:46,251
Nice to hear him again.
485
00:25:46,335 --> 00:25:49,296
I was the one who told you
I wanted to see the world.
486
00:25:49,379 --> 00:25:52,508
All you did was show me the universe.
487
00:26:06,230 --> 00:26:08,398
And actually,
it was in my initial meetings with Marvel,
488
00:26:08,482 --> 00:26:11,443
they pitched that to me.
They're like, "We're trying to figure out,
489
00:26:11,527 --> 00:26:12,986
"what does an evil Thor look like?"
490
00:26:13,070 --> 00:26:14,112
And my response was,
"I don't think he looks evil.
491
00:26:16,490 --> 00:26:20,285
You know, there's a Midgardian word
for women like you.
492
00:26:22,037 --> 00:26:23,205
Party pooper.
493
00:26:23,288 --> 00:26:25,707
Okay, this one's for Fury.
494
00:26:28,460 --> 00:26:32,172
In these episodes, we want them
to hit different genres, in a way.
495
00:26:32,256 --> 00:26:34,675
And for the Doctor Strange one,
that was the one
496
00:26:34,758 --> 00:26:38,470
that we wanted to really lean into, like,
you know, the horror, the macabre.
497
00:26:38,554 --> 00:26:43,600
So bringing in aspects of, you know,
H.P. Lovecraft's sensibilities into that
498
00:26:43,684 --> 00:26:46,019
and really going there
with some of the magic
499
00:26:46,103 --> 00:26:49,189
and some of the, like,
monsters and the frightfulness.
500
00:26:49,273 --> 00:26:51,275
Those beings have what I need.
501
00:26:52,776 --> 00:26:54,903
Is she worth the pain?
502
00:26:56,863 --> 00:27:00,450
A man does not suffer
like this for his own glory.
503
00:27:01,576 --> 00:27:03,328
Every moment of it.
504
00:27:04,788 --> 00:27:08,208
Doctor Strange basically
becomes obsessed with his own power
505
00:27:09,293 --> 00:27:11,837
It's a mixture of, like,
Dorian Gray and Voldemort.
506
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:16,425
And basically, he becomes
this H.P. Lovecraftian version of himself.
507
00:27:16,508 --> 00:27:19,011
The fun twist in the episode is,
508
00:27:19,094 --> 00:27:23,932
a version of Doctor Strange earlier in the
timeline is the one that has to stop him
509
00:27:24,016 --> 00:27:26,893
because the Lovecraftian Strange
is gonna destroy the world.
510
00:27:26,977 --> 00:27:28,312
You need to let go.
511
00:27:28,395 --> 00:27:32,149
I've gone too far
to turn back now.
512
00:27:32,232 --> 00:27:36,403
What If...? gives us
an opportunity to tell stories
513
00:27:36,486 --> 00:27:41,616
with a whole new idea of what the physical
reality of the universe is.
514
00:27:41,700 --> 00:27:47,205
That is something that's gonna be explored
in other ways moving forward in our films.
515
00:27:51,501 --> 00:27:53,628
You, you can stop this.
516
00:27:53,712 --> 00:27:55,130
You, more than anyone else,
517
00:27:55,213 --> 00:28:01,470
should understand that meddling with time
and events only leads to more destruction.
518
00:28:01,553 --> 00:28:03,889
No. No!
519
00:28:03,972 --> 00:28:07,559
It's kind of interesting
that for me that, you know,
520
00:28:07,642 --> 00:28:12,230
the Watcher is compelled in a new way
521
00:28:13,106 --> 00:28:16,902
by Doctor Strange's decisions.
522
00:28:17,152 --> 00:28:20,238
Uh, so I guess we kind of overlapped
in our interests there.
523
00:28:20,322 --> 00:28:26,119
But I just found it to be, um, uh...
really complex
524
00:28:26,203 --> 00:28:28,997
and moving and tragic
525
00:28:29,081 --> 00:28:32,542
and powerful bit of animation there.
526
00:28:32,626 --> 00:28:34,669
Yeah, that one got me. That one got me.
527
00:28:36,171 --> 00:28:39,800
One life, one choice, one moment...
528
00:28:39,883 --> 00:28:43,220
- Christine.
- Can destroy the entire universe.
529
00:28:48,683 --> 00:28:53,146
What If...? also gave us
a way to do a big fan favorite
530
00:28:53,230 --> 00:28:56,024
that we've not done before,
which is Marvel Zombies.
531
00:28:56,107 --> 00:29:00,570
When Hank Pym went down
to the quantum realm to get Janet back,
532
00:29:00,654 --> 00:29:03,323
she had been infected
with this zombie virus.
533
00:29:03,406 --> 00:29:06,701
And when he brought her back,
he accidentally infected the world.
534
00:29:06,785 --> 00:29:08,745
- Holy... What the... Hank!
- And fans know
535
00:29:08,787 --> 00:29:11,331
that Marvel Zombies
is a great, great comic series
536
00:29:11,414 --> 00:29:15,043
where you get to see the zombified
versions of all of our heroes.
537
00:29:15,126 --> 00:29:19,631
Marvel Zombies
can stand on its own as a story,
538
00:29:19,714 --> 00:29:23,385
but it was always a parallel universe.
539
00:29:23,468 --> 00:29:27,889
It was always its own
"what if" scenario, actually.
540
00:29:28,682 --> 00:29:31,601
It was a spinoff
of the ultimate run in the comics,
541
00:29:31,685 --> 00:29:34,980
and it always existed
in its own bespoke reality.
542
00:29:35,814 --> 00:29:39,109
So, we felt like we could use
the What If...? structure
543
00:29:39,192 --> 00:29:44,781
to sneak in our first foray
into the Marvel Zombies universe,
544
00:29:44,864 --> 00:29:47,200
based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
545
00:29:52,497 --> 00:29:53,623
Oh, no.
546
00:29:53,707 --> 00:29:55,792
Oh, I'm gonna vomit.
547
00:29:56,835 --> 00:29:59,838
For fans
of the Marvel Zombies comic series,
548
00:29:59,921 --> 00:30:02,799
you'll see certain similarities
549
00:30:02,882 --> 00:30:06,595
and Easter eggs
that allude to the original run.
550
00:30:06,678 --> 00:30:09,222
The state in which they find
T'Challa being a big one,
551
00:30:13,184 --> 00:30:15,604
As we were developing
the Marvel Cinematic Universe
552
00:30:15,687 --> 00:30:19,190
and all the projects that went
into creating this big tapestry,
553
00:30:19,274 --> 00:30:24,779
it was a very, you know,
specific house of cards, in a way.
554
00:30:24,863 --> 00:30:29,951
In What If...?, we get to take
a baseball bat to that entire structure,
555
00:30:30,035 --> 00:30:32,287
and just shatter it into a million pieces
556
00:30:32,370 --> 00:30:36,499
and see what's left and rebuild in our own
557
00:30:36,583 --> 00:30:40,128
mutated, interesting, unexpected forms.
558
00:30:47,510 --> 00:30:49,095
We've seen this before,
559
00:30:49,179 --> 00:30:52,390
a universe
in the final days of destruction.
560
00:30:52,474 --> 00:30:55,477
But this particular story...
561
00:30:56,227 --> 00:30:58,772
This, this one breaks my heart.
562
00:30:58,855 --> 00:31:01,733
I think in some ways,
everything is surprising about the series,
563
00:31:01,816 --> 00:31:04,986
that's what's wonderful about
this concept, this What If...? concept.
564
00:31:05,070 --> 00:31:09,366
We have these known stories,
these known characters, these known arcs.
565
00:31:09,449 --> 00:31:13,411
Doesn't matter. Anything can be explored.
566
00:31:13,495 --> 00:31:16,998
And so in some ways,
surprise is the whole point.
567
00:31:17,707 --> 00:31:20,043
In the story of season one,
568
00:31:20,126 --> 00:31:24,714
the Watcher makes it very clear to us
that he is not gonna get involved.
569
00:31:24,798 --> 00:31:26,424
He's on the wrong path.
570
00:31:26,508 --> 00:31:28,927
I could warn him, intervene,
571
00:31:29,010 --> 00:31:33,014
but the fate of his universe is not worth
risking the safety of all others.
572
00:31:33,098 --> 00:31:36,351
But it just so happens
that there is a story
573
00:31:36,434 --> 00:31:40,480
that culminates our first season
that requires the Watcher's intervention.
574
00:31:41,314 --> 00:31:46,319
We reimagine a world
where Ultron got the Vision's body
575
00:31:46,402 --> 00:31:50,448
as he meant to do
in Age of Ultron, the film.
576
00:31:50,532 --> 00:31:53,660
And when Thanos inevitably comes
577
00:31:53,743 --> 00:31:57,872
to get the Infinity Stone
from his forehead, he defeats Thanos.
578
00:31:57,956 --> 00:31:59,791
Fascinating.
579
00:32:01,376 --> 00:32:04,087
And gets
all six Infinity Stones.
580
00:32:04,170 --> 00:32:08,633
Once he does that, he's able to wage war
against the entire cosmos
581
00:32:08,716 --> 00:32:13,513
and create an entire
universe devoid of all life.
582
00:32:13,596 --> 00:32:17,934
So devoid of life that he can actually
hear the voice of our narrator.
583
00:32:18,017 --> 00:32:20,728
Basking in
the boundless silence of his universe,
584
00:32:20,812 --> 00:32:24,732
Ultron ascended to a previously
unattainable level of consciousness.
585
00:32:24,816 --> 00:32:26,943
He became aware of another.
586
00:32:28,319 --> 00:32:31,072
He became aware of the...
587
00:32:31,573 --> 00:32:33,408
I see you.
588
00:32:34,784 --> 00:32:36,995
And when
he's aware of the Watcher,
589
00:32:37,078 --> 00:32:42,208
he can break through the universal wall
and wage war on the Multiverse itself.
590
00:32:42,292 --> 00:32:45,879
Which forces the Watcher into a position
he's never been in before,
591
00:32:45,962 --> 00:32:50,550
which is to defend the very thing
that he's sworn an oath to only observe.
592
00:32:50,633 --> 00:32:54,345
And it just so happens,
the perfect cocktail of heroes
593
00:32:54,429 --> 00:32:58,182
that he needs to defeat
this Multiverse-destroying bad guy
594
00:32:58,266 --> 00:33:02,604
happen to be the same heroes whose stories
we've been watching all season long.
595
00:33:02,687 --> 00:33:04,606
And they become
the Guardians of the Multiverse.
596
00:33:04,606 --> 00:33:07,984
The Multiverse.
597
00:33:09,861 --> 00:33:13,615
I really believe that deepening
fictional mythologies
598
00:33:13,698 --> 00:33:17,535
is a way to appreciate them more,
is a way to understand them more,
599
00:33:17,619 --> 00:33:19,120
look at them in a different way.
600
00:33:19,203 --> 00:33:23,791
And they've got now two seasons
of What If...? ideas underway
601
00:33:23,875 --> 00:33:26,502
that's some of the best
storytelling we've ever had,
602
00:33:26,586 --> 00:33:29,672
and you may see spin into other mediums.
603
00:33:29,756 --> 00:33:32,675
But it's really
the most uniquely beautiful
604
00:33:32,759 --> 00:33:34,844
animated series I've seen in a long time.
605
00:33:39,515 --> 00:33:42,602
We set out to make season one,
606
00:33:43,603 --> 00:33:47,315
believing that it might be
our first and last season.
607
00:33:48,191 --> 00:33:53,780
So we wanted to tell a complete story
in those ten, now nine, episodes.
608
00:33:53,863 --> 00:33:56,282
When we got greenlit
for the second season,
609
00:33:57,283 --> 00:33:59,744
we had to really look at the characters
610
00:33:59,827 --> 00:34:03,373
and really justify
why we would keep telling
611
00:34:04,123 --> 00:34:06,084
stories in this fashion.
612
00:34:06,834 --> 00:34:10,463
Obviously, you could spin out
any number of What If...? stories.
613
00:34:10,546 --> 00:34:12,507
And it's exciting to do so.
614
00:34:12,590 --> 00:34:13,800
Bucky!
615
00:34:13,883 --> 00:34:16,677
But we were searching
for that central thread
616
00:34:16,761 --> 00:34:22,975
that could make it feel like
essential viewing for the MCU.
617
00:34:23,059 --> 00:34:28,815
And what emerged was the relationship
between Captain Carter and the Watcher,
618
00:34:29,732 --> 00:34:32,402
which is something that evolves,
619
00:34:32,485 --> 00:34:36,906
uh, in a grand fashion
in the second season of the show.
620
00:34:36,989 --> 00:34:39,283
You'd rather return to another time.
621
00:34:39,951 --> 00:34:41,911
Haven't I earned my happy ending?
622
00:34:43,121 --> 00:34:47,333
Trust me, that world, that time,
623
00:34:47,416 --> 00:34:49,252
needs Captain Carter.
624
00:34:50,378 --> 00:34:55,216
I love how richly invested
fans are in these stories
625
00:34:55,299 --> 00:34:58,469
and the characters and the films.
626
00:34:58,553 --> 00:35:01,556
One of the things about Marvel fans,
627
00:35:01,639 --> 00:35:06,978
I think, is that they have
Marvel universes in their heads as well.
628
00:35:07,061 --> 00:35:09,814
They have what exists on film,
what exists in the comics,
629
00:35:09,897 --> 00:35:11,816
but then in their heads,
they have these other,
630
00:35:11,899 --> 00:35:15,820
you know, imaginings
and stories that they tell too.
631
00:35:15,903 --> 00:35:19,824
And I think that's all a part
of the storytelling universe.
632
00:35:19,907 --> 00:35:24,287
And so the opportunity
for us to begin to explore
633
00:35:24,370 --> 00:35:27,790
these alternate realities in ways
that might touch on some ideas
634
00:35:27,874 --> 00:35:29,917
that fans have had, or don't,
635
00:35:30,001 --> 00:35:35,798
or surpass those expectations,
is gonna be really cool.
636
00:35:35,882 --> 00:35:38,217
And it also opens the door
637
00:35:39,051 --> 00:35:43,764
and a series of doors
to other endless possibilities.
638
00:35:47,894 --> 00:35:53,357
You, your stories,
they are everything to me.