Marvel dropped the first teaser for What If Season 3, so we’ll break it all down. We know what some of the episodes are going to be in this season. There’s a bunch of Spider-Man stuff happening during What If Season 3, so we’ll talk about that.
Some deleted scenes from earlier episodes were supposed to happen during ward off Season 2. It sounds like they got pushed to whatever Season 3.
There’s even a Spider-Man Easter egg. During this read Guardian Winter Soldier a clip. So if you’re bummed out at the lack of Spider-Man during What If Season 2, it sounds like they’re really bringing him back in a big way during Season 3.
Release Date
They haven’t said when What If Season 3 is going to premiere. I’m assuming it’s going to be 2025, but if they’re releasing this teaser this soon, it could actually be a surprise release at the end of 2024.
The other big reminder is that we do have X-Men 97 episodes coming up in the spring, this spring 2024. They didn’t say exactly when, so there’s some time between March and May probably.
Previously I thought that What If Season 3 was going to be the final season. But they said that they were actually developing What If Season 4, which might have been canceled when they started pulling their budgets for all those shows and cutting some of the stuff that was in development. There was a brief period when Marvel was developing shows for like every single character that you’ve ever heard of.
So What If Season 3 might be the end of the show, but they are doing the Marvel Zombies show, which is sort of based on the idea from What If Season 1.
But I think it’s meant to be a completely separate thing; it’s not taking place in that universe. Speaking of Marvel zombies, they were one of the antagonists during the What If season two finale.
Trailer Breakdown
The funny thing is that Marvel actually dropped this teaser trailer for season three before the season two finale, like the day before. One of the reasons why they might have done that is because I believe this is meant to be an episode that was supposed to air during season two, this Red Guardian Winter Soldier episode.
But for whatever reason, they just delayed it to season three. Maybe they just decided that they wanted the seasons to only be nine episodes total.
But this episode is now from a What If season 3 episode called “What If Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier?” So it’s not totally clear what he’s stopping him from doing other than killing Bill Foster/ Goliath here.
It looks like it’s happening back during the eighties based on the models of cars they’re driving and how old they are. This is a much younger version of Red Guardian than we’ve ever seen before. It is based on Bill Foster’s age like he’s much younger looking than he was during the Avengers 1980s episode.
So this might be like early eighties and the suit that he’s in makes him seem like he’s just like a regular Shield agent. Maybe he hasn’t become Goliath yet. Or maybe he’s on a mission for Shield and just happens to be dressed in the suit. But if it wasn’t clear, this is meant to be in a different reality from that 1980s Avengers episode.
The Red Guardian And Winter Soldier Duo
The other funny thing you probably realize is that they have this team-up episode here, Winter Soldier and Red Guardian. Like What If they had to go on a mission together because they’re both from Russia? Winter Soldier is from Hydra, and Red Guardian is a regular Russian military.
Part of the idea is that the Soviets, at that time in history with the Cold War, was ramping up, knew about Hydra. But Hydra was kind of like their own specific thing operating inside of the Soviet Union, not totally associated with the Soviet military.
It is the same thing with Dreykov in the red room. The Black Widow program was a special part of the Soviet military; it wasn’t part of Hydra. But because Hydra’s whole thing was infiltrating all these aspects of society around the world, there were Hydra inside of the red room.
But even though they’re treating their team up here sort of like a funny road trip comedy, they’re actually going to be teaming up again in live action during the Thunderbolts movie in the present day.
Notice when Bill Foster stops them, David Harbor switches between his Russian Red Guardian accent and his regular real-life American accent. Winter Soldier gives them the cover that they’re visiting their sister. Bucky did have a sister, her name was Rebecca, but she’s meant to have died when he was very young, and his motives scarred him growing up.
They reference her a little bit in the present day. He had two unnamed brothers, too. So they would have had some children of their own since World War Two. So Bucky does have family out there in the present day, and he could eventually visit, maybe after the Thunderbolts. He’s slowly healing his mind, and he’s getting better day by day.
Bill Foster Trying To Stop Winter Soldier And Red Guardian
Bill Foster mentions that he has a wife at this point in history. Red Guardian and Bucky botched their answer, trying to explain what they were actually doing there. Bucky says he’s getting his sister a sweater, and Red Guardian says that television, and he clocks his shield in the back seat. They also say that their brothers, which kind of reminds me of the Arnold Schwarzenegger twins movie.
When they take off, the woman who picks up Bill Foster is actually called Ranger Morales, which makes you think of Miles Morales’s mother, Rio Morales. That might just be a coincidence, but I do think we’ll eventually see Miles Morales and his family inside the MCU.
They mentioned him during Spider-Man Homecoming in the deleted scene. Donald Glover also said that he had a nephew during the movie, during the theatrical cut, who was meant to be Miles Morales.
So there is a Miles Morales inside the MCU, but I think they’re mostly waiting till after Spider-Man Beyond the Spider-Verse comes out in theaters to do any really big live-action Miles Morales stuff.
As their chase continues down the road, though, it seems like Red Guardian keeps trying to stop Winter Soldier from killing Bill Foster the old-fashioned way with a gun. He makes a reference to dancing with the enemy, and it seems like he’s just happy to be on the mission like he doesn’t actually care if it’s successful and Bucky just can’t stand him.
When a Winter Soldier punches through their car door, grabbing the wheel with the car spinning around, it almost looks like the cars are dancing with each other, paying off all of Red Guardian’s dancing with the enemy references.
What If Spider-Man Sacrificed Himself?
As I said, the Peter Parker Spider-Man is coming back in a big way during What If Season 3. There’s going to be a big Spider-Man-specific episode where he has to make a big sacrifice, like Avengers Endgame Iron Man style.
It seems like he’s doing some other kind of ferry save move here, trying to hold a bunch of stuff together. And then he’s cradling Aunt May in his arms without his mask on, so it seems like he reveals his identity to her. Maybe she’s dying again like she was during Spider-Man’s No Way Home.
What If Surtur Attacked Earth?
One of the other big episodes is the “What If Surtur attacked Earth?”. With Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange working together to stop him with their magic. I think that was also supposed to happen during season two, and they just pushed it to season three as well.
What If Black Panther And Namor Teamed Up?
There is supposed to be a Black Panther Namor team-up episode paying off the end of Black Panther Wakanda Forever. Remember, he’s just waiting for them to ask for their help because the world wants their Vibranium now.
Namor’s whole goal was to eliminate all the surface dwellers. He was just waiting for an excuse to do that in this war that’s brewing around Wakanda, with the world wanting their Vibranium is going to be his excuse to do.
But in the What If season 3 episode, they’re supposed to be fighting Hydra together. So it sounds like Hydra is trying to get their hands on their Vibranium, the underwater Vibranium in the Vibranium inside of Wakanda. But it sounds like Namor is supposed to come back during What If Season 3.
What If Bucky Became The Moon Knight?
There’s supposed to be a new night-specific episode where Khonshu actually winds up choosing Bucky to become his next avatar instead of Marc Spector. But I have no idea when that happens in the timeline.
