So these are some what-ifs I would have made into a season if I wrote MCU-based What-If

* What if Thanos erased the OTHER half of the universe?
* What if Bruce Banner studied the mystic arts?
* What if Tony heard Killian out?
* What if Earth's Mightiest Heroes became Earth's Mightiest Villains?
* What if Jen Walters represented Thanos in court?
* What if Odin went after the Infinity Stones?
* What if Deadpool got in?
* What if the Eternals intervened?
* What if a Skrull Invasion actually happened?

Commentaires

Fun_Boysenberry59482025-10-08 03:16

You have better ideas than marvel creatives on crazy salaries

SolaceRests2025-10-08 18:17

This post is a “What If… the writers knew how to write?”

AnthropomorphicEggs2025-10-08 04:05

Okay but hear me out on this one, Captain Carter part 6

Darth_Tycho2025-10-08 13:11

[ Removed by Reddit ]

ipostatrandom2025-10-08 16:58

Captain Carter & Uatu's story werent the problem.

Its that most episodes from season 2 & 3 just asked "what if questions" no one cared about.

AnthropomorphicEggs2025-10-08 20:02

I definitely didn’t hate Captain Carter like a lot of others did, but I did piss me off when Storm showed up with mjolnir and the episode wasn’t about that story

ipostatrandom2025-10-08 22:23

Its not that that specific episode wasnt about it, that would've been awkward. Its more like thats one of the premises they couldve explored to set it up for that episode.

Season 1 does it best. It mostly asks interesting questions and they culminate in a good finale.

S2 & 3 it feels like they made up awkward questions just to shove them into a finale.

AnthropomorphicEggs2025-10-09 01:02

Honestly my biggest issue with What of was the finales, would’ve been much better imo if every episode stuck to its own story and stayed that way instead of having it all come together

Hyperbolicalpaca2025-10-08 20:13

You mean you didn’t care about the question of what would happen if Darcy and Howard the duck got it on, followed by what is essentially crack fic?

Although I think the bigger question is how exactly that getting it on worked… because a ducks… bits aren’t exactly the most compatible with a human…

ipostatrandom2025-10-08 22:27

You know, this question was answered years ago by another show.

[https://youtu.be/nY90Ktp\_oWw?si=DUBCsFKrZcg4Mn6L](https://youtu.be/nY90Ktp_oWw?si=DUBCsFKrZcg4Mn6L)

Equivalent-Exam26412025-10-09 06:55

Don't you mean "quack fic"?

Over672025-10-08 08:36

What if... Season 3 was good.

CaledonianWarrior2025-10-08 12:35

The She-Hulk Defending Thanos one actually sounds like something from a She-Hulk storyline and I'd really like to see it. You'd have Jen obviously not wanting to represent a galactic despot hellbent on killing half of all life in the universe but due to some shady office politics and being forced to. Bonus points for if the trials are like the ones irl where the lawyers are really struggling to prove how their clients aren't guilty of what they're being accused of.

Darth_Tycho2025-10-08 13:12

These are amazing ideas! Much better than Avengers vs Godzilla or What If Captain Carter ruined another episode

DoubleAdvance91852025-10-08 13:34

The court concept is something i didn't know I really wanted to see

N8CCRG2025-10-08 14:39

So glad that the fans aren't in charge of these stories. "What if Thanos erased the OTHER half of the universe?" is exactly the kind of thing that's fun to think about, but is just a terrible idea to try to turn into an episode. The fact it's always the most popular suggestion on here and gets brought up ten times a month adds to the frustration with this topic and other "I should be in charge of the MCU" posts.

GJH242025-10-08 16:56

Meh. Its a great idea with a lot of narrative and emotional potential so that's probably why it gets brought up a lot. Its honestly my favorite what-if idea. No ego about it, I probably can't write or animate the episode, but people discredit it on reflex without thinking about why its a good idea probably as much as people suggest it.

Also, fans are in charge of these stories. The people who write What If are fans of the various characters and mythos.

N8CCRG2025-10-08 17:16

It's not a good idea for an episode because there's nothing *new* or *interesting* about it to explore. Despite it's name What If...? isn't actually about posing and answering "What if" questions, it's about exploring different genres and making different *new* stories within the framework of Marvel. Like, "What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?" isn't actually exploring the world where those heroes died, it's a murder-mystery where we live through watching them get assassinated. "What if Thanos snapped the other half" isn't trying to tell any new story or explore any new themes; it's just trying to retell the same story that was already told, but with different characters.

Yes, the people who write for the MCU are fans of it, but they're actual writers and storytellers first. They have spent time studying different genres and exploring different formats and actually writing and analyzing and scrutinizing stories at a far deeper level than many in this subreddit are comfortable with (i.e., studying these things at the collegiate level, as opposed to just listening to some YouTuber point out things they think are plot holes).

GJH242025-10-08 17:42

>It's not a good idea for an episode because there's nothing *new* or *interesting* about it to explore.

It is, and there is, actually. A world in which the heroes have to find different solutions, and where we get to see interactions that they would not have had because they were effectively dead.

Whether its interesting to you or not is subjective. As you yourself stated, "people post it ten times a month," so evidently its interesting to a lot of people.

>Despite it's name What If...? isn't actually about posing and answering "What if" questions, it's about exploring different genres and making different *new* stories within the framework of Marvel.

I disagree, at least in the vitriolic context you're presenting this with.

>Like, "What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?" isn't actually exploring the world where those heroes died, it's a murder-mystery where we live through watching them get assassinated.

...the point of this post was "here's my ideas."

But to challenge your statement, What If Dr. Strange Lost His Heart explored a world where Strange did not become good. What if Carter explored what if Steve didn't become a super soldier. What if Thor, what if Stark, etc. You picked an episode that focused on the inciting incident rather than the setting.

I'm not disagreeing that the premise of each episode fluctuated between exploring the setting vs the inciting incident, but its hyperbolic to criticize other ideas on that basis.

>"What if Thanos snapped the other half" isn't trying to tell any new story or explore any new themes; it's just trying to retell the same story that was already told, but with different characters.

There is no reason to assume that What if Thanos snapped the other half would not explore new themes. It is a strange prejudice to insist that that it is just retelling the same story, ignoring that that the presence of different characters makes it a different story.

>Yes, the people who write for the MCU are fans of it, but they're actual writers and storytellers first.

I'm glad that despite your initial barb, we agree that fans, who you call writers and storytellers, are writing these stories.

Good day.

ExampleGlum86232025-10-08 20:32

This right here is why What If was doomed. This mindset that the writers adopted for the later series destroyed the show. No, What If IS NOT about exploring different genres. It’s actually about asking, “What if this event I care about from the movies happened differently.” Nobody cares about crime noir Nebula or Bollywood Howard Stark. Nobody cares about rom-com Howard the Duck or Western Kate Bishop. If I wanted to watch a western, I’d just watch a western. The show was advertised as teasing our imagination by changing something and seeing how the change played out. Those changes may necessitate a new genre, but starting with, “What genre can I introduce to the MCU” and then contorting a What If scenario to fit that is a recipe for bad writing.

420smokekushh2025-10-08 18:18

Still better than What if Marcy and Howard the Duck had a baby

Stripe-Gremlin2025-10-08 15:36

What If Ghost Joined The Avengers?

ExampleGlum86232025-10-08 20:10

This has already happened.

Stripe-Gremlin2025-10-08 20:15

That’s New Avengers, I’m more talking if Fury somehow got her out of the Hydra side of SHIELD and got her enlisted into the original team

ExampleGlum86232025-10-08 20:34

Gotcha, that sounds like an interesting idea.

TelenorTheGNP2025-10-08 15:53

What if Loki had won in Avengers 1?

Logical_Astronomer752025-10-09 05:24

He did. He got exactly what he wanted

TheCrystalStone2025-10-08 16:39

Good work those are way more creative ideas then what we got

Wooden_Passage_26122025-10-08 18:08

What if Christine Palmer became a sorcerer supreme

SteveTheOrca2025-10-08 18:31

What if Pietro Maximoff survived the Battle of Sokovia?

Prize-Individual94302025-10-08 22:10

What would that consist of? How would him being a part of Civil War had changed things?

SteveTheOrca2025-10-08 22:14

Honestly, I have no idea, I just thought the idea was cool.

Equivalent-Exam26412025-10-09 06:57

What if Pietro survived INSTEAD of Wanda?

NOW it has longer story implications all the way through to Endgame.

SteveTheOrca2025-10-09 07:00

That's kinda what I was going for, I even posted a drawing about that in r/Quicksilver lmo

ExampleGlum86232025-10-08 20:08

You are a genius. Imagine the Hulk episode ending with Bruce and Hulk being reconciled like in Endgame but not “smart Hulk”. Instead, he’d be “enlightened Hulk”.

Hyperbolicalpaca2025-10-08 20:12

Nah,

We’ll take pacific rim but avengers, and sentient duck beastiality, thats what the fans would really want…

God what if was such a disappointment, the first season was really good, but then it essentially turned into crack fic lol

All great concepts from you here imo

Titanotyrannus442025-10-08 20:50

To be honest, they would have been better to see than those recurring plots involving characters like Captain Carter or the Watcher. Don’t have anything against them. They’re just a bit repetitive

Prize-Individual94302025-10-08 22:04

What if Shang Chi had become Antman. (Based solely on the fact they're both in San Fransisco)

What if Tony's team won the airport fight, Cap and Bucky dont get away. Rhodes is not shot out of the sky. Cap and team are incarcerated. Zemo is somehow foiled but he tells Tony about his parents. Out of anger he vows Cap will rot in prison. He then becomes General Ross' state sanctioned Superhero.

What if Maria Rambeau had become Captain Marvel instead

What if Mordo confronted Agatha Harkness (before the events of Wandavision)

What if the Illuminati had heeded Strange's warning and gave him the Book of Vishanti

Prize-Individual94302025-10-08 22:07

CaleBoi252025-10-08 23:51

I actually really like all of these! I'd also like to see **What If... Clint Sacrificed Himself for the Soul Stone?**

M_R0N2025-10-09 01:24

Imagine THIS "What-If": your mother comes home from her day job tomorrow, and you tell her "mom I finally went outside today" and it were TRUE. Shayamalan twist

PleaseRecharge2025-10-09 09:24

I'd love to see

What If... Loki Was Loyal to Asgard?

Loki was loyal to Asgard and loved his family despite knowing he was a Frost Giant. Thor has ascended to Godking without issue with Loki as his Royal Advisor. Godking Thor meets a distressed Earth being assaulted by Thanos' General Gamora, aided by the Mind Stone, on a quest for the existing 2 infinity stones on Earth at the time. Countering Thanos' assault with the Asgardians, Godking Thor is mortally wounded by General Gamora. Advisor Loki, knowing Earth as a realm under protecting of Asgard will fall without his brother, steals the Time Stone from the Ancient One and goes through loops to make sure his brother sees the end of battle. Earth is saved, and the time stone, mind stone, and tesseract are kept in Asgard by the young, foolish Godking Thor.

Thanos, disgusted by Gamora's loss on Earth and loss of the Mind Stone, imprisons and tortures her. He then decides to retrieve the stones at an accelerated schedule, becoming the tip of the spear himself. Somewhere far away, a sleeping Dormammu is awakened.

What If... Ego Fistfights The Universe? (Filler)

Ego manifests as a giant humanoid (a la Cybertron) and literally just engages in galactic fist fights with the likes of Galactus, the Eternals, and other large cosmic entities

This entire universe is capable of existing in its own cycle and Storyteller Loki loves to watch it personally and sometimes sway the odds with his own tricks

CharacterOld86912025-10-09 17:10

Frog Thor should have been an episode

ExtensionFisherman832025-10-10 04:18

*What if... Wolverine had Vibranium claws?*

MaMcMu2025-10-10 22:44

Here's my idea for an episode that's actually inspired by one of the original comics. It doubles as a comedic breather type:

What If... Ultron was Never Created? In it, Tony is so overwhelmed by the stress of running Stark Enterprises that he and Bruce abandon the Ultron project, thus preventing the Civil War from happening. Tony eventually finds relief in food and slowly yet progressively gains weight. It's gotten to a head that he struggles to fit in his armour and resorts to using the Hulk Buster to get around. Like I said, with the Civil War non-existent, the heroes have never been divided and fight Thanos together as one in the future.

Puzzled-Ad-44552025-10-12 17:26

Some of these are lowkey what they wouldve done in season 4 lmao, but some of these are fire