Marvel’s What If...? Team Compares MCU Series to "Pizza Rat" Video

Marvel's What If...? is set to make its debut on Disney+ later this month, showcasing the first animated series set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not only will the series introduce new, reality-warping iterations of Marvel characters and storylines, but it will serve as the proper introduction for Uatuthe Watcher (Jeffrey Wright), a cosmic being who oversees the events of the Marvel multiverse. In a recent press release from Disney, the cast and crew of What If...? dive into what to expect from the series, and compared The Watcher's larger-than-life, unable-to-intervene role to the people who filmed and reveled in the viral "Pizza Rat" video from a few years ago.

"The Watcher is a kind of cosmic character," head writer AC Bradley explained. "Someone filmed the rat dragging a slice a pizza across the subway platform. It was on Twitter, Buzzfeed. It went viral. We all watched it. We're all The Watcher— cheering this rat on, finding it hysterically funny. But we're not going to get close to this rat or bring him home—it's a rat."

"The Watcher views humanity as simple, lowly, disgusting," Bradley continued. "But at the same time, he's fascinated by what he's seeing. And the more he sees, the more his understanding of humanity evolves."

(Of course, depending on whether or not you believe the validity of the original Pizza Rat video, that comment takes a whole other meaning.)

The crew also teased what to expect from Wright's performance in the MCU series, hinting that he will be delivering a dynamic performance.

"I just love that guy— his voice is just so rich, so unique," director Bryan Andrews explained. "His career has been great, but when he showed up as Felix Leiter in the new James Bond series I was blown away. He's so talented in the way he uses his voice with variations of inflection— a single word can give a sentence a whole new meaning."

"Jeffrey really helped us craft a threedimensional character that's interesting and dynamic," producer Brad Winderbaum echoed.

"It's obviously pretty cool to be stepping into the MCU now—exciting place," Wright added. "But, of course, The Watcher has always been there really…watching."

Marvel's What If...? is set for release on Disney+ beginning August 11th. If you haven't signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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