Marvel’s What If…? Head Writer Calls Episode 7 “Easter Egg Heaven”

Marvel’s What If…? Episode 7 is going to be a treasure trove of Easter eggs and references, according to writer AC Bradley. This latest episode of What If? will be “What If… Thor Was an Only Child?” and it will deliver the much-anticipated “PartyThor” storyline that was teased in the What If? trailers. Episode 7 will be an examination of the relationship between siblings and how much our brothers and/or sisters shape who we are. In that sense, Thor growing up without Loki will make the events of the various Thor movies play out in very different ways. 

If you can’t tell from that aforementioned framework, “What If… Thor Was an Only child” will fit squarely into the lighter side of the stories What If? has been telling. It’s clear now the series either does whimsical retellings of popular MCU franchise stories (see: Captain Carter) or it delves into deep tragic ends to alternate MCU universes that couldn’t be saved from disaster. Well, after the heavy hits of assassinated Avengers, a world-ending Evil Doctor Strange, and Marvel Zombies, director Bryan Andrews wants to assure Marvel fans that the Party Thor Episode will be nothing but fun: 

“The story took root from a love of ’80s and ’90s rom-coms and party films,” Andrews explains to EW. “After so many serious episodes, what’s the most fun we could possibly have? And the answer to that is: Let Thor throw a party… some of the stuff has already been a little bit leaked because of merchandising, there’s like shirts that say ‘Party Thor!’ so it lets you know a certain degree of the attitude behind this episode.”

What If? head writer AC Bradley teases that this Party Thor episode will keep hitting Marvel fans with a barrage of Easter egg references: 

“It should be Easter egg heaven. I hope people have fun with the one this week because it’s not as bombastic world-ending as other episodes. The mandate for me when I was writing it was, I just want to have fun, I just want to be silly. It’s a lot sillier than anything you’d see in the MCU. It should be an episode to watch with a beer.”

One person who is embracing that ‘Have a beer,’ spirit for the Party Thor story of What If? is Marvel star Chris Hemsworth:

“He ate it up,” Andrews reveals about Hemsworth recording his Party Thor lines. “We started finding the voice and Chris has got such natural comic instincts — they’ve started bringing that out in Ragnarok but we got to lean into that even more so in this. There’s some stuff that got particularly goofy and he was laughing and the guys in the recording booth over there in Australia were laughing, and he was just like, ‘I really like this Thor!’ He gets to cut loose more than he ever has in the Marvel Universe… I get a sense that maybe there’s a little bit of actual Chris in ‘Party Thor’ which might be one reason why he gravitated towards it so easily and had so much fun with it.”

Marvel’s What If? streams new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.