What If Season 2 trailer is here, and now we have a pretty good understanding of what each episode of this season will be about? The official poster seems like a holiday-themed poster because they’re releasing it right around Christmas, like the end of the year.
We already know what all the episode titles are, so we have like a pretty good idea of what the theme of each episode is. It’s sort of a pretty good idea of where the footage falls in which episode, but there are a couple of question marks.
So we will be looking through the trailer and try to gather as much as we can about the story of each episode. We will also try to guess the story of the entire season as we know that all the stories will be connected in the final episode, like what happened in the last season.
Season 2 Release Date
What If Season 2 will be released on 22 December 2023. The Fun part about this season is that we will get a new episode every for the entire Christmas week. The What If Season 2 Schedule for the Christmas week is as follows:
- What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps? – Fri Dec 22, 2023
- What If… Peter Quill Attacked Earth’s Mightiest Heroes? – Sat Dec 23, 2023
- What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas? – Sun Dec 24, 2023
- What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Grandmaster? – Mon Dec 25, 2023
- What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper? – Tue Dec 26, 2023
- What If… The Avengers Assembled in 1602? – Wed Dec 27, 2023
- What If… Hela found the Ten Rings? – Thu Dec 28, 2023
- What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World? – Fri Dec 29, 2023
- What If… Strange Supreme Intervened? – Sat Dec 30, 2023
What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?
But that is before we get this sick transition from the approaching footsteps of Hella to the footsteps of a Nebula who has joined the Nova Corps in her universe, as she can be seen rocking the Nova core uniform and taking off a Nova core helmet.
Because of this, it appears that she might have been tasked to hunt and take down the space Ravager Yondu Udanta during one of her Nova Corps missions. Those footsteps appear to lead towards Yondu’s unconscious body.
We can actually see the moment that Nebula and Yondu’s battle began later on in the trailer when Nebula catches Yondu’s Arrow right before the Arrow goes right through her Eyeball. And it looks like Yondu did try to distract her with the hologram of himself first, but my girl Nebula was simply the better of the two cyborgs in that moment.
After this, Nova Nebula can be seen using a high-tech space device to project a hologram of a mysterious spherical structure. A structure that I think might actually be one of the golden Domes of the sovereign home world. A map that I think Nebula may have taken off of Yondu’s unconscious body in order to foil a potential Battery heist. As we learn in Guardians 2, those batteries are quite valuable in the open market.
What If… Peter Quill Attacked Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?
What If Peter Quill attacked Earth’s mightiest heroes is the first episode that this What If Season 2 trailer starts off with a Quinjet holding the 1980s version of a superhero strike team consisting of a younger version of the Cree scientist Marvell, Giant-Man – Bill Foster, King Tachanka, Hank Pym – Ant-man, and The Winter Soldier approaching what appears to be the Ferris wheel at Icon Park in Orlando, FL.
Followed shortly after by a shot of King Tchaka leaping onto that Ferris wheel to relay Intel back to his strike team about their adolescent target in the form of an 8-year-old Peter Jason Quill.
This Peter is definitely not as Peter Jason Chill as the Star Lord that we know and love from the main 616 universe, as this Peter Quill has seemingly come into early contact with his dark celestial father Ego, the living planet.
This means that in this universe, there is a high likelihood that Yondu actually fulfilled his business arrangement with Ego in 1988 and brought a young Peter Quill to Ego shortly after Ego’s tumor killed Meredith Quill. Just like Yondu had been doing for a bunch of egos, and other children. This is why Yondu was kicked out of Sakarr Ravagers in the first place because Ravagers don’t deal with kids.
Young Peter Tapping Into His Powers
After meeting with his father on Ego’s Planet, it seems like this young Peter Quill was able to tap into that blue celestial energy at the heart of Ego’s planet and mastered how to manipulate that blue energy quite quickly, just like Peter does in Guardians 2, but this time with devastating and destructive effects.
However, although it does ironically seem like we are getting a very bright-esque Version of James Gunn’s Star-Lord character, I don’t think that this young Peter Quill is seeking to cause mayhem for the sake of causing mayhem.
I mean, seeing as Peter is literally wearing the same JD Canoe River rafter shirt and outfit that he was wearing during the night of his mother’s death, it is highly likely that this Peter Quill is just an emotionally distraught child giving cosmic power at a very young age. And that he is just using that power to grieve over the loss of the woman that he loved the most in the world.
Not only this, but in the trailer, we can see him using his powers to grab an orange raccoon from one of those amusement park stance. Not only as a nod to Peter’s love for Rocket Raccoon in the alternate 616 universe.
But him hugging that stuff Raccoon also shows that Peter Quill is in deep need of emotional affection and love following his mother’s death. Because God knows that he wasn’t getting any of that **** from his self-centered sperm donor of a celestial Dome daddy Ego.
Ego merely wants to use Peter cruel to help him with his great cosmic expansion. And with Peter having just witnessed the death of one parent, this 8-year-old boy is probably willing to do everything in anything to please Ego, even help ego Terraform planet Earth.
Hank Pym’s Ant-Man Detail
But anyway, I really like the little detail of those light bulbs breaking every time Hank Pym – Ant-man popped from one to the next. As we learned from Hank Pym in the first Ant-Man movie, The Ant-Man suit allows blue wearer to retain their mass despite shrinking in size. So all those light bulbs shattered because of the impact of each leap.
Hank Pym then says that he is great with kids when denying backup when approaching the young Peter Quill. This is hilariously inaccurate considering Hank’s strained relationship with his daughter Hope when we first meet him in Ant-Man 1.
We get a cool superhero shot of the Earth’s mightiest heroes of the 1980s, consisting again of King Tchanka, Howard Stark, Bill Foster, and older Peggy Carter, Marvell, and Hank Pym.
Then there is a shot of a young Ego before an army of ego clones made out of the very dirt of planet Earth start attacking Thor, Bill Foster, and King Tachanka-Black Panther.
What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?
The trailer ends with footage from the Happy Hogan Saves Christmas episode as Darcy Lewis exits a store with a massive jar of cherries while referencing 1997’s Conair and 1992’s Under Siege while trying to think of Die-Hard. To this Happy Hogan calls her John McLean in reference to Bruce Willis’s iconic Christmas character.
According to Happy, it seems like Avengers Tower has been taken over on Christmas, just like in Die Hard. So it’s looking like Happy has got to do his own little Die Hard himself in order to save Christmas.
I mean, we do see what appear to be two of Tony’s Ultron sentries putting a Santa hat on the A outside of The Avengers tower at one point. So maybe happy might have to stop. A building full of Ultron bots. Who knows, but I for one cannot wait to find out.
Of course, the final shot of the trailer is the shoutout to the iconic Avengers group shot at the start of Age of Ultron, but with the Hulk noticeably absent. But don’t worry, Captain America is dressed up as a green elf, so at least there is still some Green Man representation, which is very important for an Avengers team.
What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Grandmaster?
Then we get our look at an alternate universe of Sakar where the Grand Master appears to be hosting a battle race with Gomora, Tony Stark and a Valkyrie-Korg team up, all competing in a race to the death. Korg apparently making a little hamster friend, which is kind of adorable.
Even the grandmaster involved himself in the high-octane festivities. This is of course not the first time that we have seen this universe in the MCU. As we get a brief look into that universe in the first season of What If, when the Watcher first approaches Gomora for help against Ultron Infinity.
This Sakar episode of What If was actually originally planned to debut last season, but Marvel Studios decided to push that episode to this season instead.
Then we see that green killing machine Gomora seemingly yank the Grandmaster melting stick from his assistant Topaz to attack an enemy off-screen. Before we get this sick shot of a rocket raccoon with a lot more cybernetic alterations than usual. It looks like the majority of his body, with the exception of his head and tail have been fully replaced by a robotic battle suit equipped with a massive laser gun. His right eye also has been replaced with a red glowing laser sight, which is super badass.
What If… The Avengers Assembled in 1602?
Then we get an alternate universe take off the Captain America vs Thanos showdown from Avengers Infinity War, where Steve apparently triggers the limestone to activate by Accident when striking Thanos’s Infinity Gauntlet. This might just end up causing Steve Rogers and possibly even Thanos to begin a journey through time.
Speaking of a journey through time, it seems like we do get shots of what appears to be the 1602-era universe. As we can see, both Ant-Man and Steve Rogers fencing some as Guardian Knights in some somewhat old-school armor.
What If… Hela found the Ten Rings?
This is immediately followed by a shot of Talon’s great protector flying over Hell’s Head. Then after the Marvel Studios logo pops in, we get a shot of Hell’s horned helmet in the darkness being lit only by flashes of lightning before we get a shot of Hella herself approaching what appears to be the defending forces of Tallow. Assembling much like they did at the arrival of both Wenwu and Shang Chi in the Shang Chi movie.
Then we see what appears to be a hella dressed in traditional talo garb, engaging in a sparring match with Shang Chi’s mother, Yang Lee. Not long after that, we see a Hella armored in the Red Dragon scale armor of Taleo teaming up with Wenwu against her father, Odin. Hella is apparently using the manipulating gravity powers that she learned during those training sessions with Ying Li.
When Hella and Wenwu attempt to restrain Odin with their power, Odin lets out a huge blast of Odin Force force to repel them backward. Officially making this fight the fight that I am most hyped to see during this season because holy ****.
If these two managed to take down Odin in this episode, I can definitely see Wenwu coming as the next new King of Asgard alongside his co-ruler of a queen Hella. I could actually see Hella killing Wenwu and just taking the whole thing yourself because that’s just what she does. I mean, how is a bad bitch, you can’t kill her.
What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?
But then the trailer introduces us to a completely new character in the MCU, in the form of the native Mohawk hero Kohhori, who gains Tesseract-type space manipulation powers after the Tesseract itself lands in the Hudunots Shawni confederacy before foreigners colonized America. As a side effect of the tesseract’s arrival, a nearby lake in the region is transformed into what Marvel describes as a gateway to the stars. One of those gateways appears to manifest at the bottom of the lake in the trailer as Kohhori begins to fall to the bottom.
Since we did learn that the Tesseract can be a gateway to the multiverse during that Captain Carter episode of What If last season, I can definitely see why Kohhori seems to have a big role to play this season. As the portals might allow her to open portals across the multiverse, similar to how America Chavez can.
She might actually end up being responsible for Thanos coming through that portal and grabbing Captain Carter’s Shield later on in the trailer. She can be seen standing right behind Carter at that moment.
What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?
Speaking of Captain Carter, towards the end of the trailer, we get this shot of her reaching out to grab a hand of a mysterious person holding Loki Scepter being sucked into this green tear in reality. That mysterious person, likely being Loki himself, likely a Loki variant from the 1602 universe that appears alongside the silhouettes of Lady Siff and Vision as Wanda summons that massive portal of chaos energy in the trailer.
What If… Strange Supreme Intervened?
We get this Super interesting shot of the Watcher’s home reality of jagged multiversal mirrors. The wall of mirrors to the left of the frame has been shattered with a giant hole in it. Likely the same the whole created by Ultron Infinity when he broke into the Watcher domain and discovered the multiverse in season one.
Strange Supreme also makes his return to the multiverse narrative after we last left him guarding Zola and Killmonger in his collapsed home Dimension prison. And considering how much this Doctor Strange variant was dabbling with dark and addictive magic last season, there is a high likelihood that this man is about to be this season’s main villain somehow. And possibly even a major player on the multiversal scale on the road to Secret Wars.
But then again, we do see that Killmonger is back as well, and that boy does have his own agenda. So who ends up being the true villain of Season 2 is up for debate. Still, because, good Lord, there are a lot of possibilities on the field.
