Transcript

Taylor: Hello, hello listeners, and welcome to another episode of Sisters Assembled. We are pivoting from our recent coverage, breaking down all sorts of different important topics coming out of The Marvels and moving into the last of the new content for the year, which is of course What If? Season Two. If you guys have been around for a while, you know that we enjoyed Season One, so we’re definitely looking forward to diving into what might happen in Season Two, what episodes we’re really looking forward to and all of that good stuff. So without further ado, Katie, why don’t you take us right away with the first episode or one of the first episodes. We’ll get into it, don’t worry.

Katie: Yeah,  to rip that band right off essentially, there has been the leak. I’m sure plenty of you have seen it if you have been keeping up with Marvel, if you’ve watched the trailer, I think it came out like either right before, or right after the trailer for What If? came out. It’s pretty much what we think the nine episodes are going to be. I cannot confirm the sources. I do not know where it came from. It just appeared and the Internet kind of went crazy on it but we’re going to use it to kind of guide our way through this because What If? is a weird property, I don’t even know if we made predictions for it for Season One now that I’m thinking about it. Did we?

Taylor: I honestly don’t know. I know we reacted to it.

Katie: Yeah like at the end, but I don’t know if we actually did predictions.

Taylor: I don’t, I don’t know. We’ll have to look back because I actually don’t remember.

Katie: I’m honestly going to go with my gut feeling and say that we didn’t. I’m not sure we did because I think it was one of those things that we were like, this is weird and we don’t really know how to cover it quite yet. So even here, I don’t really know how to cover it. So we’re going to go off the leak and we’re going to start there. That’s going to be our base point and we’re going to go episode by episode of what supposedly I’m using my air quotes here, the episode titles are, and then kind of sprinkle in what we’ve seen in the trailer and be able to say, are we excited about it? Do we think the idea is a little meh for a What If? episode, what we think it might mean, whatever. So the very first one is, well, okay, the first one on the list, I don’t know if it’s the first one in the season, but the very first one is that Nebula joined the Nova Corps.

Taylor: Yes, I personally like this one. I think it’s a good addition to our What If? Rolodex for a couple of reasons. One, I think, you know, if you listen to any of our coverage around Guardians, you know that Kate and I really liked kind of Nebula’s whole arc throughout the whole trilogy, going from kind of the bad guy to a begrudging member of the team to a real central figure in the team and a real piece of glue, you know, to hold everybody together. So I like that we’re centering an episode on her. I also like that it has to do with the Nova Corps. If you all listen to our most recent episode, you know that I got really, really into intergalactic politics. So that’s something that I definitely want to explore more. We talked actually quite a bit about the Nova, so it’ll be interesting and exciting to revisit them, even though it’s in a different universe and also, I don’t want you all to forget we do have a potential Nova show in the ether at this point, but it has been tossed around. I think it’s been confirmed. We don’t know where it is in the production process, but there is a Nova show coming down the line, so I like that it’s kind of pulling together a lot of different pieces and I think that that’s really exciting, even though it’s in a different universe.

Katie: I feel a little bit differently about this episode, mainly because I’m more 50/50 on it. I think I’m really for it, but it has to depend on when she joins the Corps in my opinion. I think if we go off of and listen, I don’t know, we could be anywhere, again, that’s the idea of What If? We could be anywhere on a timeline, we could be anywhere in the universe, in the Multiverse, whatever. But I think if it’s current Nebula, after having the growth she’s had, I wouldn’t be shocked again, though I guess again, it’s a different universe because the Nova Corp is kind of questionable where it’s at in our universe. But I think if it’s the current version of Nebula, I’d be like, okay, I’m not shocked. I think it’d be a lot more interesting if we saw her enter the Nova Corps way earlier in her storyline, maybe even right after the first Guardians. I think that could be a really interesting plot point because that could really screw up things and show things from a completely different angle for us so if it goes that way, I’m very excited. If it goes the other way, I’ll be like, eh it’s fine.

Taylor: That’s fair. I see what you’re saying in terms of how interesting the actual storyline is for me, I’m viewing it more of a continuity thing, like, if she does it because she’s now grown or she’s like evolved as a person, that to me makes sense, and I’d like to see what that looks like. But I definitely see what you’re saying, it’s kind of just a natural progression in what we’ve seen for her versus her going, say during Guardians One would be a whole different experience because she’s a very different, much angrier person, and really from what we know of the Nova, which is in the MCU, very little, she’s not really fitting their vibe. So that would be a very interesting contradiction for sure.

Katie: Well, that’s what I mean and I think too when you watch What If? at least my perspective of it is that I love it so much because it really is if you let that one variant run away and just complete their storyline and that’s what I love. I mean that Marvel Zombies episode and now we’re actually getting Marvel Zombies but the zombie episode of What If? was amazing. I mean, the whole first season really was there were only one or two that I didn’t love, but I just love the concept so I want to see more than a small change. I want to really see them run away with the storyline. The next one on our list at least, is Peter Quill attacks Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Now, I want to preface this was saying, well, okay, first I gotta just say, from what we’ve seen in the trailer, we know this is not current Peter Quill, as in 30 to 40-year-old man. This is a young boy, Peter Quill, who looks like he maybe was I won’t say raised by Ego, but maybe there was a more prominent Ego in his life because he clearly is aware he’s half Celestial. And we are in what, the seventies, eighties? 

Taylor: Eighties. 

Katie: Yeah, I’m really bad at the time, but we have heroes that are not our current heroes, but our like predecessors to all of them, except for one because this should be interesting. I’m just going to break out and say, Bucky, the Winter Soldier, Bucky. And I’m confused by his involvement because I’m not sure how the Winter Soldier Bucky is involved here and on an Avengers team in the eighties but he clearly has been in cyro because he’s still young.

Taylor: Yeah, I actually didn’t think about that. I was like very focused on the whole predecessor part, so I’m going to table that for a second because I know you really want to focus on Bucky.

Katie: Of course, it was the most exciting part of the trailer for me.

Taylor: We’ll get it talked through and then we’ll go on to the predecessor part. I mean, that is an interesting question because it’s almost like you what ifed twice. Like what made the difference in Peter Quill’s life? Was it that Yondu didn’t come find him and Ego found him himself? I don’t know. That could be the what if moment, right? But then for the Avengers to have formed in that way, so many of them make sense, right? Like King T’Chaka, Hank Pym, we already know he was talking to and working with Peggy Carter. So there are so many, you know, T’Chaka was never confirmed to know any of them, especially at that time they were super insular, which is really another almost what-if moment because there’s no way to T’Chaka would ever join an Avengers team. But it’s interesting because they all kind of make sense in their own way, maybe a little less T’Chaka because of the politics around it but certainly Hank and Peggy. So you’re right like I never really thought about well, why is he there? Why is Bucky Barnes there if he’s the Winter Soldier if there wasn’t another what if moment? Are we going to see a universe in which three what-ifs happened at the same time on the same day, and it just led to this whole thing? Or is it one, did Ego meddle? Is it one instance where a Celestial came to Earth and it set T’Chaka on a different course where he wanted to protect more than just Wakanda because now we’re dealing with forces so much larger than just, you know, geopolitics on a human level. Is it that there’s some sort of alliance now with the U.S. and whoever the Winter Soldier is with at different times because that’s always confusing, too, between the Nazis and the USSR. So maybe they’re combining forces in a way now because we have a Celestial we see that humans need to bind together to fight this much larger being that is way beyond the powers of any one nation. That’s all I got because otherwise, we’re looking at three different what-if moments because three very significant things have changed to make this particular group of people able to interact both as a protagonist or from a protagonist standpoint and as an antagonist.

Katie: Listen, I’ll be the first to say, of course, I am happy that Bucky Barnes is gracing my screen in whatever capacity he is, and that Sebastian has returned once again to the MCU to voice him. The shower scene, iconic in the first What If? season, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how the Winter Soldier is because it’s not just Bucky, it is the Winter Soldier. Arm, face mask, eye makeup, all of it is there and he’s obviously been in cyro, and I just can’t figure out how my guy ended up where it did. But then I look next to him and there’s Mar-vell.

Taylor: That’s the other one. That’s the other one.

Katie: Yeah. I’m like, where did she come from? It’s so weird to me. It’s a weird group.

Taylor: And that’s another what-if moment, right? It’s clear that she tried to do the thing with the ship much earlier. Carol Danvers is probably in diapers at this point in time. She did her thing. She got blown away by the powers of the Tesseract and not Carol Danvers. So you’re looking again like you just keep for every person, you almost have to tick another mark on the board of how many what-if moments we’re having because truly the only two people whose storylines haven’t changed would be Hank and Peggy. Hank is actually kind of iffy because he hates SHIELD and he hates Howard Stark.

Katie: So clearly that went a different direction somewhere as well.

Taylor: Yeah, yeah so somehow Peggy was able to smooth that over so you’re really looking at five different what-if moments to get Peter Quill, T’Chaka, Hank Pym, Mar-vell, and the Winter Soldier all in place to have this universe. Why are they not five separate universes? I just unless again, like, it has to be one domino effect? I don’t know. I don’t know.

Katie: I don’t either and I have to say, putting aside, obviously, my love for Bucky, I’m most intrigued by this one. I will admit that because of just the people involved. I don’t really understand how we got to this group because I like the idea of this early group of Avengers. We knew they were kind of out there. I mean, Ant-Man alludes to a lot of that with both Hank and Janet. They both were out there doing stuff for SHIELD. Okay, like there are levels to it and so I think that’s interesting, but it’s like, I don’t know how we got some of these pieces, so I’m very excited for this episode.

Taylor: Yeah, I definitely think it’ll be the most involved in terms of having to really think about the story arcs of a lot of these characters the way that we know them now in 616 and then what has changed to get them there. I am almost a little bit fearful that they’re going to focus on Peter Quill too much because he is the main antagonist, whatever, and he clearly is kind of the star of this episode the way it’s framed in the trailer. But I’m hoping that they don’t gloss over the fact that T’Chaka would, T’Chaka would never, ever interact with these people.

Katie: Well, and it’s like who even formed these guys? Who knew about these guys to form them? Because the Avengers were all brought together. They didn’t just kind of see each other on the street, and say, oh my God, we’re going to be besties, no, that is not what happened.

Taylor: Well, wasn’t Howard Stark, the head of SHIELD at this time?

Katie: Yes, I believe. At least,= he was heavily involved. Well cause the Winter Soldier never would have killed him. There we go.

Taylor: Right, Howard Stark is still alive. So there’s so many things and that’s what I’m saying. I hope they don’t gloss over why is he here? T’Chaka. Why is the Winter Soldier here? Why is Mar-vell, you know, getting in places that Carol Danvers should have been in 20, I guess 15 years later, Carol Danvers isn’t in diapers. I forgot she’s much older than she looks. She’s probably ten or 12 right now but, you know, I just hope long story short, that they actually address that there are multiple things happening here and don’t just like blinders on Peter Quill and his story, because I think there’s so much richness with the actual Avengers themselves and I want to explore that. Cool, Peter Quill, he’s kind of redeemed himself a little bit in my eyes. We all know how we felt about Peter going into that third movie. It’s not about Peter, though, for me, like he’s the least interesting character. His is straightforward. I want to understand everybody else.

Katie: I 100% agree with that statement. That’s where I land on that one but I will say out of the list, I think that’s my highest up there. I’m most excited about that episode. Moving on to the next one, well supposedly the next one, Happy Hogan Saved Christmas. As far as I’m concerned, sounds great, sounds like a good time, not going to put a lot of money in this one.

Taylor: Yeah, seems like a filler, seems like a kind of entertainment level one. Going to get a lot of our non-superpowered peeps in there. I know Darcy was in the trailer talking to Happy. Kind of like an homage to Die Hard, when he’s doing the whole thing and they reference it in the show or in the trailer at least. So I think it’s just going to be a fun little filler episode, not much to talk about here.

Katie: Yeah, I agree. I mean, maybe this one will surprise us, but at least from what we’ve seen in the trailer that we know that is in this episode, not much happening. The next one, what if Iron Man Crashed into the Grand Master? This is the one that in the trailer looks like everybody’s doing live-action Mario Kart.

Taylor: It does and I am so intrigued by two of the world’s biggest narcissists going head to head.

Katie: And then like Valkyrie is there like, we have all these random heroes. It’s so funny. 

Taylor: Well, she’s going to have no patience for any of this. She’s going to be so annoyed like it’s a good thing she never really interacted with Tony Stark because I don’t think she would like him very much.

Katie: Oh heck no.

Taylor: We know she doesn’t like the Grand Master, and they’re pretty much two sides of the same coin. So it’s like that’s going to be a lot for our king to handle.

Katie: Well, is she the king?

Taylor: All right, I reference her as our king because she is our king now, in our universe, she probably won’t be king there. She will probably be a scrapper, whatever her number was like we saw. It’s probably going to take place in Sakaar. I think that’s pretty much confirmed based on the trailer and just the things that I’ve read. You’re right, she’s not going to be king. I’m referencing her as king because she is king but it’s going to be a lot. I think it’s also going to be hilarious. I’m definitely getting Ragnarok vibes from it. I don’t know what it’s going to mean in terms of larger ramifications. You know what I think it’s actually going to be? I think it’s going to be the Thor is an only child type episode where it’s hilarious and we’re all going to talk about it for years because we loved the episode so much but it doesn’t actually do a lot to really, like, wow us in terms of like the Multiverse. Does that make sense?

Katie: Yeah, I think that makes sense. I mean, again, I don’t want to hold any of them back because we only see small bits in the trailer. Some of them we don’t even know what parts they go to. And so I don’t want to hold them back and be like, well, definitely not but I would say at least for now, I would write this one off a little bit of importance, especially because and we’ll get to this when we go through all the episodes. If we are heading towards a bigger something like we did in Season One, where does this fit in the bigger something? That’s kind of the question that I think kind of keeps going through both of our minds. So now we move on, this is the middle well, the middle of the list, five. What if Captain Carter fought the Hydra Stomper? Everybody, I’m going to put aside my feelings for the character when I do say again, no interest in this episode. I’m not going to lie.

Taylor: Yeah, I too am not really interested. The one thing that I do think is giving it a little bit of interest to me, not nearly as much as some of the others, but when I was reading one of the articles kind of talking about like, what can we expect in What If?, they were talking about how this is actually a sequel to I think the first episode of Season One. And that our Steve, well not our Steve, that Steve who went in the Hydra stomper actually becomes that universe’s equivalent of the Winter Soldier. So we’re getting kind of another role reversal there. I think that’s the most interesting part for me but other than that and the fact that it continues, I like that there’s a little bit of continuation. The article talks about how it is interesting that we are almost having a direct sequel to an episode from last season. I think in my head maybe not because I guess sort of happened ahead of time. I don’t want to get too deep into it. I was going to say, I guess this confirms it’s not 838 because she would be dead, but if this is taking place right after, then she would still be alive. We’re not even going to start that conversation anymore, forget I said it. I do like the fact that it’s a sequel. I like that there’s continuity between Season One and Season Two, and that’s pretty much all I’ve got to say about it.

Katie: Yeah, I have to agree. The only thing for me is the continuity and because obviously I have a special place in my heart for all the Captain America stuff, I’m cool with going to that time and kind of seeing a continuation of that storyline. That was interesting to me. In the first episode, even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of the main protagonist, I still enjoyed watching it, kind of watching a different situation take place so it’ll be fine. I’m sure that will somehow wrap into the bigger plot of the season if there is to be one, just because she played such a big part in Season One so I would expect nothing less. But it could be a completely different version too. We could still be in a what-if of a sequel, it might not be that same timeline so that could be interesting. Then we move into a weird one, which is the Avengers assembled in 1602. This one’s weird to me.

Taylor: Yeah. When I was doing my research, I felt like I read that it was sort of an homage to something else. There’s a specific piece that it’s actually an homage to, some sort of literary piece or something that predates it. So there’s a reason why they did it and picked this particular time. I am blanking now on what that was because I looked at it a couple of days ago and anything that lives in my brain for a couple days is a miracle. So I don’t remember exactly what it was, but that is kind of the vibe that I got for this one, that it’s kind of playing off of something else and that’s why this time period was chosen. But it definitely is interesting because it feels, it feels almost like the zombie episode did last season, that it’s so divorced from kind of everything else, which is fine, they’re not all connected, but there’s just like a certain level of change that you expect in all of these and that we’ve seen in the vast majority, whereas like the zombie episode was completely post-apocalyptic like that was just the world was over, man.

Katie: I need a sequel to that one.

Taylor: I mean, we’re getting a show, so.

Taylor: I know, and I hope it is a continuation because you can’t just show up with zombie Thanos with the gantlet and then be like, it’s over, like, I’m sorry.

Taylor: I know, I know but this kind of reminds me of that in sort of the tone that it’s kind of left field in comparison to the rest. I have no idea what to expect from it other than like being very shocked because I was super shocked by the zombie episode.

Katie: Yeah, I have to agree. I think this one, it’s weird for me for two reasons. One being while we just talked about the Peter Quill one and on its own, that one could be you’d be like, these are completely separate. But when you’ve seen the trailer and you’ve seen the team-up that they built for the Peter Quill episode, you already almost have a what if the Avengers formed at a different time. So you have that one and now you have this one that’s way further back. I mean, theoretically, I don’t know how, well I don’t know how they’re going to do it but theoretically, the only person alive are like Thor and Loki. No one else is alive on our current roster, so I don’t really know how they’re going to do it. I don’t know who’s going to be on the team. I’m not sure how it’s going to be put together. It’s a very weird episode to me.

Taylor: It is. The only other person who would be alive would be that era’s Black Panther because the mantle is passed from parent to child. But it obviously wouldn’t be any of the Black Panthers that we’ve known or loved.

Katie: No, it is a weird one. 

Taylor: It is. 

Katie: And I’m not sure what to expect.

Taylor: I’m not either, but I’m excited about it. I’m a big history person so I feel like it’s going to be really interesting and it’s definitely probably in my top three or four, I would say episodes that I’m most excited about.

Katie: Okay, I mean, I guess out of some of the other ones, it’s higher just by default because I think there’s a few, not that I don’t find a lot of them interesting, I just think they fall lower by default. So I just I think that was a good middle, maybe top middle. But then we go into, this is my second top one right beneath the Peter Quill one. And this is what if Hela found the Ten Rings. Now, listen, any reason to bring Hela back to me is perfection. I loved her in Ragnarok. I was very sad, lowkey, that she didn’t make it out of that movie and was like a one-movie villain. I mean, she’s Thor’s older sister, there’s so much lore there. And if you’re into any Norse mythology guys, obviously there’s a lot of layers to who Hela actually is, but there’s so much lore that we could have gone into and we didn’t get to go into any of it, really. So I’m happy to bring her back and clearly, it’s going to be pretty good because Odin reappears like we’ve got some crazy crap going on. We see quite a few scenes in the trailer for this one.

Taylor: Yeah, this I would say is probably my top, probably edges out the eighties Avengers one just by a hair for a couple of reasons. You definitely hit the nail on the head with Hela. She’s such a fascinating character. Cate Blanchett obviously was just phenomenal playing her and, sadly, we didn’t get to see more of her, so there’s that aspect of it. But I think for me, it’s not just that we go Hela back, it’s what Hela is going after and it’s the Ten Rings. We all know Katie and I love Shang-Chi. We’ve brought him into every conversation we possibly could for the last two and change years. And knowing what we think we know about the Ten Rings, any time that they are going to be on my screen, I am going to be laser-focused because of how they’re treated in this universe, while again, you have to take into account the variables that are relating to different universes, of course, there’s a grain of salt. But I do think that we can maybe parse out some clues about the Ten Rings based on what Hela believes about them, why she’s after them, and how she finds them. There are so many things that a being of Hela’s age and knowledge can teach us about the Ten Rings that we don’t know yet. That is why I am so incredibly excited about this because we have not had the Ten Rings in over two years. They are probably really, really important, again, if our theories pan out and I am just so excited to have them back.

Katie: Yeah, I mean it also and you kind of said this, but I’ll just go into it a little further. It does take us back to the Shang-Chi world and we see that in the trailer as well. We see distinctive clips. And so that’s what I mean. This trailer is broken down into all sorts of pieces. There are a lot of places I still don’t know where people are going to land. Like there’s a scene of Killmonger, I’m not 100% sure where what episode that’s even in. But this specific episode happens to have quite a few pieces when you realize what the storyline is because you see Hela, you see Odin and you see and I’m blanking on the name because it has been so long, but the mystical world that Shang-Chi goes to, where he ends up fighting his father and his whole family is there and everything, and they have the whole battle and the dragon scene. There was a lot in that movie now that I’m looking back at it.

Taylor: Upon reflection, that movie was jam-packed.

Katie: Yeah, like, wow, there was a dragon there, too. But, you know, we do visit that forest again and we go back there. So I’m intrigued because I wonder if we will get a little bit more of the background there as well.

Taylor: Yeah, agreed. I think it just opens the door again to a place that we have not spent nearly enough time in and that’s everything related to Shang-Chi, the mythos around his mother’s background, his mother’s people, the rings, all of it. There’s so much to talk about and I’m excited to maybe just peel back one layer, like I’m not expecting them to give us a whole book’s worth of this is what you need to know. But just like give me a morsel because I’ve been waiting for so long and I think I’m crossing my fingers, I think we’re going to get one. That is why this is my number one most anticipated episode and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.

Katie: It’s definitely a good one and I’m excited to see it. But we move into our final two and I’m actually really happy that they’re like this on the list. Again, I don’t know if this is how they’re going to come out, but I’m happy this is how they were put out on my screenshot because these both have their own segways we’re going to go off into. So the first one is what if Kahorri, and I hope I’m saying that correctly, but it’s what if Kahorri reshaped the world and I’m going to let Taylor take this one away.

Taylor: Yeah so I think what is super cool about this character, if you guys don’t know a ton, it’s probably because she actually has no comic counterpart. She is completely original to the MCU and to What If? specifically, so there’s not actually a lot to be known. She is basically an indigenous person from the United States before it was colonized. So that is the first time that we’re really seeing that on our screens, which is amazing. One of the coolest things that I read about the little bit that we do know about this episode is that the entire episode will actually be in their native language, which means we will all get to read it via closed captions, which is super, super cool. I know when they did that in Black Panther and they’ve done in some of the other films, I think it just adds a really cool layer of authenticity to it. So I’m definitely really excited about that but in essence, basically this episode, from what we do know of it, is going to be what if the Tesseract landed in America pre-colonialization? So basically in an indigenous village and kind of how that changes not only their lives, but then essentially the world based on the title of the leaked title that we have. So there’s a lot I think that’s going to be really interesting here. There are articles talking about, you know, could she then come into live action? I would love to see it. I haven’t even met the character yet but I think any time you’re introducing a new interesting character and really focusing on authenticity and representation, I think it’s a really good opportunity and I’m really, really excited for this one, too.

Katie: I think you opened the doors for me about why I’m excited about this episode, and it’s because of whether or not this character could come into the MCU. We have not seen this many times before, if at all, to have characters that are major, characters that don’t have any background, come in and could become a very prominent character moving forward. I don’t think they do anything for free. Marvel always has a reason for things. I think it’d be the weirdest thing to have a whole What If? episode on a brand new character, to write the background of this character and then we never see them again and or only see them in a What If? series. I don’t think they’re going to do that. If anything, I’m most intrigued by this episode because I’m trying to figure out where this or where this character comes in later on and why this character, what they’re trying to introduce us to, and who they could be in the MCU, how they could impact the MCU. That’s really what I’m looking for from this episode so it’s going to be interesting. I don’t know what to expect because it’s all brand new. We don’t know this character. No one does. So I’m excited for this one, I’m not going to lie.

Taylor: Yeah, me too. I think there’s something really intriguing about a virtual blank slate. No comic book precedents, no background of the character that we can dive into beyond the snippets that Marvel has fed us so far. I think that just makes it so interesting and just lends it to be a really surprising episode, but not surprising in a bad way at least I hope. You know, hopefully, it’s really surprising in a good way.

Katie: Yeah, I agree and I know some people upon this list coming out were kind of and even trailer were kind of like, why are they wasting a What If? episode on a character that’s nonexistent to us? Again, I think it’s because they’re putting the foundation down for this character in the future. That’s what I think is happening, and this is a really interesting way to do it, in my opinion. But then we move to the last one, and the reason I’m glad this one is last is because I think it opens the door to the question I’ve kind of been mentioning throughout this whole list. And so this episode is supposedly titled What If Strange Supreme Intervened. And now the bigger thing for me is this opens the door to wondering what is the connection from Season One to Season Two of What If? if there is one? Now, we talked about Captain Carter, that episode being technically a sequel, but we still could be in different universes. There might not be a direct connection there, but when you bring in Strange Supreme, who we know the Watcher put into a little I don’t know, like a snow globe almost to hold everything together, or at least one version of him. I start to wonder, did Strange become Strange Supreme somewhere else? Or is this the stay the same Strange Supreme who is now no longer in his snow globe holding things or I don’t even know what he’s doing, holding things apart, together.

Taylor: It has something to do with UltronVision.

Katie: Yeah. Isn’t he in, like, a constant battle with him?

Taylor: Yeah. I think Killmonger is in there, too. It’s been a while, but I was reading an article saying that Killmonger was in there, which would explain why Killmonger, you mentioned earlier, that he’s in the trailer.

Katie: That’s true. I don’t remember him being in the snow globe thing, but that would make sense.

Taylor: Doesn’t he betray the Multiversal Avengers?

Katie: He does what he does best, yeah.

Taylor: Yeah so I feel like it’s been a minute and we’re both probably going to rewatch the show before the new season comes out. We haven’t yet.

Katie: I’ll probably start tonight.

Taylor: Yeah, but definitely I’ve been reading some articles trying to catch up and refresh the memory, and that came up that UltronVision and Killmonger were like, locked in this never-ending battle together. So that’s kind of, I think, where Strange Supreme comes in, as you alluded to. I think it’s going to be a sequel if I had to put money on it. There are a couple of reasons. One, we do have another potential sequel, so it wouldn’t be the first one. I think there is something to be said for continuing to evolve within specific universes. I think we’ve seen that these two universes, the ones that Captain Carter is in, well, this one that we’ve seen in What If? the Captain Carter’s in because as we know, she may be in multiple universes, but this particular one is something that has been deemed pretty important because we’re probably going to see it again. And so whatever number that is, that is a universe that I would be willing to say we’ll probably see in Battleworld because we’ve now seen it twice. Same thing with this one with Strange Supreme. We’ve now seen it, if it does become a direct sequel, we will now have seen it twice. We will have this Doctor Strange potentially in Battleworld. I think what Marvel’s starting to do is pick and choose particular universes that we are needing to focus on more because they will be part of Battleworld. Remember, it’s not just the two universes at the end that have the incursion. Ours and Miles Morales, which I can’t remember the number right now, are the two that are having the incursion, but there are so many others that create a makeup Battleworld. I think in all of this extra fun, What If? stuff Marvel is giving us little breadcrumbs of the ones that we’re going to have to really focus on and get to know in the future.

Katie: There was a lot of content out of your mouth.

Taylor: Thank you.

Katie: But I actually I’m going to follow up with a question. So part of the question about this was Season One to Season Two continuity and I think you had some great answers there. But my other question, which is partially the other one being asked throughout the rest of this episode was are we going to be leading up to this finale, if you will, the same way we led up to it in Season One? Because remember well, first off, UltronVision is terrifying, I’m just kind of putting that out there.

Taylor: Literally the worst villain of all time. Like not in like quality, but in the level of terrifying. UltronVision.

Katie: I mean, he just like, cut Thanos in half.

Taylor: He was like, you’re in my way and I want what you have.

Katie: Yeah, so he’s terrifying but obviously we see that in what, like I think it’s Episode Eight and then Episode Nine is a bunch of our heroes. That’s when the Watcher intervenes in that and a bunch of the heroes we just watched the what-if scenarios about get brought together. Do you think we’re seeing that again in Season Two for a culminating point in the last episode?

Taylor: That’s so tough. I have reasons why, yes, and reasons why no. I’ll try to be brief so I can hit them all. My reasons why yes, is because I think from a continuity in terms of format standpoint, it makes sense to kind of do the same thing with What If? that you would do on a regular series, right? You have all these plot points, all these plot points, and then they culminate in the finale. That’s what most shows do and then they kind of wrap up. It also would make it kind of a parallel, another half really to Season One. I also think if you think about some of the commentary of the Watcher and we’ll get into this briefly in a little bit, but he’s talking about, I don’t normally do sequels and there are going to be ramifications of the fact that he did intervene because that is not his job. His is to watch, hence the Watcher. So for those reasons, I think that it does make sense to kind of do that, to have him have consequences to what he did in Season One, but then also kind of follow the same format. One of the things that I think makes it tough to do that is it doesn’t, it’s already been done in the sense that we’ve already got Guardians of the Multiverse. Some of these people have already been in the Guardians of the Multiverse, and now we are as an MCU, way more in it than we were in 2021, right? We’ve had two seasons, well, no, sorry, one season of Loki since because Season One came out prior to this. We’ve had MoM since this came out. We’ve had other heroes who are, like America, who are way involved in the Multiverse. We’ve had, you know, what happened at the end of The Marvels. We are so much more involved in the Multiverse as a 616 universe now that something of this magnitude, while we might not understand it, I think it would be hard for us to not notice it because so many of our characters have tendrils. I mean, Loki is like the God of Stories. He is the God of the Multiverse right now so how would he not know this? And we’ll get to a little bit of Loki in a second.

Katie: Yeah, I was to say, table that for like a hot sec.

Taylor: But my point is we have characters who are in it now and it would be hard for me to suspend belief and say, okay, cool, that’s fine. We’re not going to have any ramifications to live-action 616. On the flip side, this might be the last season of What If? and they say, here’s your bridge, here are all your characters. Take this one finale and it’s going to impact what we have seen and what is going on currently in the Multiverse and it’s going to impact 616 and the characters who do have some inkling of what’s going on. Sure, I mean, that can be read both ways. So that’s why to me it’s a very complicated answer because there are really strong reasons for both yes and no.

Katie: I like everything you said and as you were saying things you were pinging ideas off in my head. The first thing you said as I’m going to go through my list, some of them are going to be a little off the topic but the first was you brought up MoM. One, I want to understand, were there ramifications beyond that? Because What If? I think is the perfect scenario to even one line from the Watcher that something was going wonky because you had a very powerful witch body snatching essentially and killing people in a universe when she wasn’t supposed to be there. On top of that, she’s in one of these episodes, and out of all of them, at least one, out of all of them, I’d put my money on this last one because the only person to me who goes toe-to-toe with any version of Doctor Strange is the Scarlet Witch.

Taylor: I would agree. 

Katie: So I don’t know and I’m looking at the rest of the list and I’m like, she really doesn’t fit anywhere else. Unless you argue the Avengers forming in 1602 because the Scarlet Witch is an entity.

Taylor: That is true. Like a Black Panther, it’s a mantle, not a person.

Katie: Correct, so I could argue that. Otherwise, as I see her fitting in with the Strange Supreme intervening and who’s to say Strange Supreme here is the good guy. He might be the bad guy here.

Taylor: I mean, with Stephen Strange, there’s a 50/50 shot, so you never really know.

Katie: Exactly and if you all of what you just said, if we add that into a bubble, if we want the continuity, and if you brought up I was going to ask you if you thought What If? would have more seasons and so you kind of brought that up. If they’re saying, no, this is it because we’re building into Battleworld, although theoretically, they have time to do another season or two. But if they do say this is it and everything built here because Doctor Strange is so important in the Battleworld conversation as well. This is what takes all those other universes that we’re going to meet into live action, then I could see him being the bad guy here. I mean, is that not what MoM kind of hinted at? Wasn’t that the point?

Taylor: Well, yeah and I mean, not to mention we talked a little bit about Secret Wars and kind of what happens in the main kind of comic, there’s many offshoots and stories that come off of it, but in the main storyline, Doctor Strange is the right-hand man of Doctor Doom.

Katie: Exactly, that’s what I mean. Like he’s a big player in that storyline.

Taylor: Not just a big player, a big player from the wrong side. And so it kind of, again, you know, it makes me wonder is our 616 Benedict Cumberbatch Doctor Strange which you know we saw him play other versions of Doctor Strange as well but in comparison to his animated version we’ll say. Is our 616 Doctor Strange the one who’s going to be the right-hand man of Doom, or is it going to be this Strange Supreme who moves into live action and becomes the right-hand man of Doom? There are so many options because of the Multiverse, we talked about this. The options are literally limitless. But you know, with What If? specifically, because we are bouncing around so many different universes and because this particular universe is one that, you know, in comparison to many others, we’ve actually spent a significant amount of time in. I think that that’s a very valid theory to put on the table that this Doctor Strange might become the main Doctor Strange in Battleworld. Who knows?

Katie: Exactly. That’s what I mean, the ramifications here could be a lot bigger. And that’s why I was glad this was last on the list, because I knew this opened a lot of other doors. But to finish us out a little bit, there’s one last thing I know Taylor and I both alluded to and we just want to discuss quickly, and that is obviously we all watched the Loki finale. We know Loki is now the God of Stories. If it’s the first time you’re hearing this, we gave you plenty of time, just an FYI. I’m sorry if I just broke something to you but that’s the news. And there’s been something important in the trailer that I am not going to lie, I didn’t spot initially, mainly because I was really hyped up, but eagle-eyed fans who were able to spot it and or watch the trailer 17 times and saw it, saw something. And that is the world the Watcher kind of sits in, whatever that is because supposedly it’s beyond time.

Taylor: Don’t say those words, I don’t want to hear those words.

Katie: I know that’s like such a gray area. Whatever he sits in that weird mirror dimension, now is tinged the color green.

Taylor: Yeah, it is and I want to shout out to our friends over at Lights Camera Rant. He and I go back and forth on opinions and theories and trailers every once in a while and he pointed this out to me.

Katie: And I read them as they are discussing them.

Taylor: Yes and so I want to shout out our friends over there for pointing this out to us because that is a brilliant, brilliant catch and I think it’s super interesting. And I want to add one little detail, Katie, that you skipped, and it’s that in Season One, it’s purple. Who do we know has a main color of purple? Our good friend, He Who Remains. So it seems to imply that we are moving from one master of the Multiverse with He Who Remains to Loki. It also implies that yes, what happens in our universe, in our MCU, our live-action MCU, affects what happens in What If? That to me gives evidence that that can go the other way, that what happens and What If? can also then affect what happens in our live-action universe and the main continuity that we’ve been following. I think it’s just such a beautiful, brilliant detail and I’m really excited to see it expanded upon and played out more in this season so we can go from What If? is really fun and entertaining and I really like it too oh my God, look at all of the ramifications of everything that came out of What If? You laid the groundwork, and now hit me with all of the cool stuff. Give me the icing on the cake. That’s what I want for Season Two and I think this little detail really hints toward that, and I’m hoping, fingers crossed, that it pays off.

Katie: I definitely I’m in the same boat as you, although I’m going to ask a question and I’m not really sure if I need an answer or if it’s more of a rhetorical question, just putting it out there to make people think. But as you were saying, clearly, what is affecting or clearly our world can affect What If? in saying what if is an extension of what we see in the MCU. And I think that was a big thing coming out of the first season where it was like, should we be worried about this show? I think that was the ongoing question and there were a lot of people who didn’t want to watch it because it was animated and it just wasn’t their medium and listen, I get it. But I think it became the question of is this show is important because is it going to affect what we see in live action? I think to everything you’ve said, they’ve confirmed that it has and it can. We are seeing Loki taking on being the God, we’re calling him the God of Stories, but he really is the God of the Multiverse. We are seeing him taking that mantle on and suddenly that’s affecting what the Watcher sees. Now, my question and or questions is what is Loki seeing in regards to the What If? universe and what is the Watcher seeing in regard of Loki?

Taylor: I will answer your question with the question. What is Loki’s role versus the Watcher’s role?

Katie: I wonder if that was sort of where my question was going. That’s like the b-plot of my question. It’s like we even said in the Loki finale, Loki almost took on the role of a real-life Watcher. We were calling him that. And I mean, we are still iffy, the MCU has not been made clear about what exactly his abilities are, how he can intervene or not intervene, we don’t know that yet, that has not been confirmed. But I think if you’re going to sit here and show us that the Multiverse changes colors because of who is essentially in charge of it, well then that means I need to understand who the Watcher is floating around if you have Loki sitting, breathing life into the Multiverse. Who are they to each other?

Taylor: Yeah and what’s the point of the Watcher if you have, I guess even going back to He Who Remains. What was the point of the Watcher if you had He Who Remains running the TVA? Clearly, Loki’s doing things differently, he’s allowing the Multiverse to exist. And then that begs the question, if there was no Multiverse, how was He Who Remains that color or making the Multiverse that color like there are so many things all coming back to the fact that we don’t actually know when Loki takes place, which is infuriating. But you’re right, I don’t think we know the answer to these questions. I hope that because the Watcher seems I’ll say seems a little bit more inclined to talk to us this season. He seems more open because he already broke the rules. The way he’s saying I don’t normally do sequels, but so he’s already breaking another, maybe not a rule, but maybe one of his own values. And the fact that he’s acknowledging that we saw what happened last season, I think all of that kind of leads me to think that the Watcher is going to be a little bit more informative this season. So I’m really hoping that he just has a couple lines where he’s talking about, well, this is how the Multiverse has changed. And I do think he says something in the trailer where he’s like, you know, a lot has gone on in the Multiverse. I don’t want it to stop there, though. I want you to specifically tell me we have got someone new in charge, like tell me, these things. So, yeah, I don’t have an answer for you. I just have a kind of wish and hope for what they give us.

Katie: That’s why I feel like my questions were sort of almost rhetorical because it was like I wasn’t fully expecting answers because I don’t think we have them. I think we’re going to have to just see, I mean, we will do final reactions like we did to the entirety of Season One, although this year we are going to each be reacting to each episode on our Instagram. So make sure you guys are keeping an eye out for that because they are coming out every day of the holiday. So it’s going to be a lot, but we will be doing reactions to each episode, just brief ones, and then we’ll do a full episode at the end. And I think that will be a question I want to revisit to see if we get an answer.

Taylor: Yeah, I agree. It’s definitely something to kind of keep on our board and monitor throughout the season is are we getting hints that the Watcher is reacting to potentially a new boss because we don’t actually know what that relationship looks like.

Katie: Yeah, it’ll be interesting. I’m hoping we get an answer to that one.

Taylor: Me too. But I think in terms of the little bit that we know now, which is to say not much considering we used a leak to guide our entire episode, we are going to call it a day on our predictions for What If? But don’t let our lack of knowledge, confirmed knowledge confuse you. We are very, very excited to come at you with daily reactions, some of which will even be in the same place, you’ll get daily co-reactions from the two of us for this show. Definitely make sure you’re checking it out, even if animation isn’t your medium of choice, it’s not mine but I am still very excited and still will be watching. So with all that being said, we are going to call it a wrap on this episode. You should definitely make sure that you are following our show. We have a couple of fun episodes to end out the year and then starting in the new year, we will come back at you with our reactions to What If? Season Two. You can also check us out on the website, where we have the calendar of all of our upcoming episodes as well as ways that you can help support the show if you would be so inclined.

Katie: You can also give us a follow on Twitter at SisAssembledPod or Instagram and Threads at SistersAssembled to keep up with us and just all the fun things we and the show are doing. And Taylor said it, we have some great episodes still coming up. So next week get ready because we actually are revisiting Loki guys, even though we were really unsure if that was going to happen. We are going to talk about an ongoing theory about the Infinity Stones and how they wrap into some of the interesting characters and power levels we’re starting to see come out of the Multiverse Saga. So I don’t want to give away too much if you know what I’m talking about, just be ready. And if you aren’t, be ready as well, because we’re about to tell you a really great theory, we’re going to go through it, and talk it out so get ready for that episode. And as always, keep up with Marvel and keep up with us because Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.