Marvel's What If...? Season 3 Already in Production

By Liam Crowley

The Marvel Animation train keeps on rolling. Following the announcement that What If...? Season 2 is scheduled to release in early 2023, Marvel confirmed that a Season 3 is already in development. Summer 2021's What If...? Season 1 was Marvel Studios' first run at cartoon content, and its success led to the creation of a full animation division within the studio. Beyond What If...?, Marvel Animation is also developing Spider-Man: Freshman Year, X-Men '97, and Marvel Zombies. 

"As you know with animation, it takes a long time to produce," Executive Producer Brad Winderbaum said last summer. "We were fortunate enough to get the green light on a second season early enough to have a chance to release it next year. We'll see what happens. Obviously, I don't want to predict the future with this new world we live in, but our intention is to make it an annual release."

Delaying What If...? Season 2 to early 2023, after it was previously reported to air on Disney+ this summer, is likely due to how long it takes to produce animation. Winderbaum certified that episodes will always aim for that 30 minute mark, but vary depending on the story they're trying to tell.

"We targeted 'a half-hour' for each episode," Winderbaum continued. "Some of them come in a little longer, some of them come in a little shorter. And really it was all about producible time. We wanted to tell as many stories as we could. And we had a certain budget we had to work with, so it felt like that ten episode (now nine episode) run was the right quantity."

While Season 3 details are all but nonexistent, head writer AC Bradley has teased plans for next year's sophomore run.

"Going into the second season, we're sticking with anthology form, and it's going to be all-new stories, lots of fun, new heroes, and pulling more from Phase Four than we were obviously able to this season," Bradley said. "Hopefully, we'll see hints of Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Black Widow characters. The fun of What If...? is that we get to explore the entire infinite multiverse, so we try and bounce around as much as we can. I want to play with all these characters, and as much as I love Captain Carter, we've got to share the love. I'm very excited to show new worlds, new heroes."

What If...? Season 2 hits Disney+ in early 2023.

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