What If…? Head Writer Teases Gamora “Prequel” Episode in Season 2

The Season 1 finale of Marvel’s What If…? debuted on Disney+ this Wednesday, bringing the series’ ambitious animated take on the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a head. The episode saw the return of a number of standout characters from across the series’ first season, as well as some figures that fans might not have been expecting. Among them was an alternate version of Gamora (Cynthia McWilliams), who appeared alongside Tony Stark / Iron Man (Mick Wingert) at Nidavellir, before being called into the “Guardians of the Multiverse” by The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright). Gamora’s appearance in the episode somewhat confused and frustrated fans, as it had been the first time she factored into What If…? — but according to executive producer and head writer A.C. Bradley, we will get to see the story of how she became the “destroyer of Thanos.”

As Bradley explained in an exclusive interview with ComicBook.com, the episode recounting those versions of Tony and Gamora ended up being delayed due to production problems tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. But as Bradley reassured, that story is coming at some point in the series’ second season, as a sort of “prequel” for her appearance in the finale.

“We definitely will,” Bradley said, when asked if we’ll see more of Gamora. “What happened with the Gamora episode, there was originally supposed to be — early on in the season — a Tony and Gamora-centric episode. However, due to COVID and production delays, one of our amazing, amazing animation houses around the globe got hit pretty hard by the pandemic. And we were left with two choices: push the entire season to later this year, or push this one episode to Season 2. We made the choice to push that episode to Season 2, and hoped that seeing Gamora in the finale serves as a teaser for what is to come. In season two, it’ll almost be like a little bit of a prequel, we’ll see how Tony and Gamora became friends, because those two don’t even interact in the main MCU universe.”

“Given all the upheaval that we’ve been through in the past two years, pushing an episode is nothing, and we completely understand,” Bradley continued. “Our animation houses have been absolute rock stars in pulling off this show.”

When fans do get that episode, it apparently will be tonally in line with the more comedic offerings of the “Party Thor” episode, something that fans probably expected given Tony Stark’s role.

“We did have another comedy episode in the season… more in the pure comedy vein… which is the one that has been pushed to season 2 due to COVID production issues…,” Bradley previously told Deadline’s Hero Nation podcast last month.

Season 1 of What If…? is now available to stream in its entirety on Disney+.