Marvel Fans Wondering if Captain Carter Fought Shuma Gorath in What If...?

The MCU's first foray into the realm of animation has arrived, as Wednesday morning brought the series premiere of Marvel's What If...? to Disney+. The debut episode is all about Peggy Carter taking the super soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers, becoming Captain Carter and helping take down Hydra in World War II. While the episode is mostly straight-forward, there is a supernatural element in its third act that has fans believing a major Marvel monster has made its way to the MCU, albeit in an alternate reality.

As teased in the trailer, Captain Carter has a run-in with some sort of tentacled alien creature, though we'll save the specifics of the encounter to avoid any spoilers. Plenty of fans are convinced that the creature is actually Shuma Gorath, the villainous monster that is rumored to be the antagonist of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

There's no confirmation as to whether or not the creature in What If...? is Shuma Gorath, but there's plenty of evidence to support it. Not only does it have the right look, but it also makes sense in the context of the greater MCU, with Doctor Strange 2 arriving early next year.

Regardless, Marvel fans took to Twitter to theorize about the alien's identity, and what it could mean going forward.