The third and final season of What If…? has just ended, and its concluding moments gave us a brief glimpse of a fascinating new variant, Silver Surfer Jubilee. This character was featured among many other variants, including a six-armed Spider-Man, a Samurai Ghost Rider, an Iron Heart Punisher, a Wolverine Thanos, and more. Time will tell whether this version or the other multiversal variants will appear again in an upcoming series or movie, or if these are simply fun mashups of different characters to get fans speculating about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Still, with a version of the Silver Surfer (Shalla-Bal, to be exact) confirmed for Fantastic Four: First Steps and an X-Men film in the works, it’s hard not to wonder if Silver Surfer Jubilee isn’t setting up something interesting.
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While What If…? is technically set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and explores the same multiversal theme that’s playing out in the other shows and movies, it still largely operates as a self-contained series, essentially having no impact on the wider MCU. Even though none of its characters have appeared outside the show, versions of several of its characters have been seen in various films. For example, variants of Captain Carter (a mix of Captain America and Peggy Carter) and Strange Supreme (a Doctor Strange corrupted by dark magic) were featured in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The introduction of Silver Surfer Jubilee may be little more than an attempt to plant the seeds for the real characters’ MCU debuts, but as the Multiverse Saga ramps up towards Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, it’s possible that a version of this character may show up at some point on the big screen, and may even be setting up a larger X-Men / Fantastic Four connection in the works. There is some precedent for this; when Marvel Studios got the rights back for the X-Men, instead of going right into production on a new X-Men film, the studio opted to gradually pave the way for them to appear in the MCU. Examples of this include when Quicksilver actor Evan Peters (from Fox’s X-Men films) showed up as a “recast” version of the character in WandaVision, or when Wolverine’s hangout Madripoor was featured in Falcon & the Winter Soldier.
An Epic But Uneven Conclusion
This episode, titled “What If… What If?,” takes viewers back to when a younger Uatu pledges himself to never interfere with those he watches but only to observe, and officially becomes a Watcher. Uatu asks why being a Watcher precludes him from getting involved with this reality’s beings but is told that the answer will one day come to him. In the present, Uatu is on trial for breaking that oath, but just before he is to be executed by fellow Watchers Eminence, Incarnate, and Executioner, Infinity Ultron interrupts the proceedings which allows Captain Carter, Kahhori, Byrdie, and Storm to rescue Uatu.
However, it isn’t long before Eminence, Incarnate, and Executioner catch up with the ragtag team of multiversal heroes. Fortunately, Uatu grants the heroes with the powers of a Watcher as well, giving them the upper hand in the ensuing battle. Captain Carter sacrifices herself transporting her teammates to Strange Supreme’s reality wherein he depowers the trio of Watchers. But instead of vanquishing them, Uatu teaches them the importance of truly seeing, that they must do more than simply watch over the inhabitants of the multiverse but learn from them. The episode ends with Kahhori, Byrdie, and Storm joining Uatu as fellow Watchers.
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This final episode ends in a grand if somewhat confusing manner. It brings things full circle with a plot that features Captain Carter so prominently, as she’s been one of the throughlines connecting the series as a whole since the beginning. There are plenty of surprises in store for fans of the show, and it offers a pretty heartfelt message about how everyone matters in the multiverse at large, perfectly complementing the cosmic escapades. However, the episode feels a bit rushed cramming a lot of story into only around 30 minutes of runtime, leaving some narrative and thematic questions unanswered. But the MCU’s Multiverse Saga is currently unfolding, so there’s still a chance that some of these plotlines will be addressed in upcoming releases.
