What If...?: How Jeffrey Wright Found His Marvel Voice for the Watcher

Marvel Studios launched its first foray into animation with Marvel's What If…? on Disney+. The first episode brought fans to a universe where Peggy Carter, not Steve Rogers, became the sole recipient of Dr. Erskine's super-soldier serum. But someone has to serve as the guide to the many universes that provide answers to the question baked into the show's premise. That role falls to Uatu the Watcher, the cosmic being who observes all these myriad possibilities without becoming involved in their events. Jeffrey Wright voices Uatu. Speaking to ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis via Zoom, Wright explains how he found his voice in the Marvel Cinematic Universe alongside other actors returning to voice characters they've played in live-action.

"I certainly haven't kind of marinated in this character the way they have, and I can appreciate what that means from, well I guess from Westworld having worked now, geez, almost seven years on that show, you really understand the details, the nuance, and the specificity and the depth of the character in a way that you don't, unless you spend that time with it," Wright says. "So yeah, I didn't have that luxury here, so I just had to make it up as I went along and sit in it and in my closet during the pandemic and play the music, but I think we found something that works well and interacts well with the other voice work that the Marvel vets brought to the table."

He also offered some insight into the strange process of recording a voice performance for an animated show during a pandemic. "It's actually much more disconnected than you would think," he says. "We all kind of do our own work in our own ways. You know, Chris Hemsworth and Mark, we're not gathered in my bedroom closet putting all this down, you know?... And particularly during the pandemic, of course, everybody's in their own space somewhere in the multi-verse and we put it down and it goes through some kind of magic elixir or I don't know, magic process that transforms it into what we see in these episodes."

What did you think of the first episode of Marvel's What If…? Are you digging Wright's performance as Uatu? Which What If…? episode are you most looking forward to seeing? Let us know what you think in the comments section. New episode of Marvel's What If…? premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.