Let’s face it: from ‘Quantumania,’ to the Victoria Alonso and Jonathan Majors dramas, and “The Marvels,” Marvel Studios had a really bad 2023 (we went over their stressful year in much detail here). At the very least, they’ve ended 2023 on a very good note with “What If…?” season two, a series we gave some really top marks for for its mythical and archetypal writing.
And while never previously officially announced before, it appears that “What If…?” season three is already on its way and “coming soon,” according to a new teaser from an unknown episode that surfaced on social media today. Marvel teased “gifts” earlier in the week writing on Marvel.com. “I am The Watcher. Check back each day at 9am PST for new reveals and exclusive gifts as we watch Season 2 of Marvel Studios’ What If…? Premiering on Disney+ Dec 22nd.”
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And so this gift is clearly the low-key announcement of season three. On to the teaser, what is it? A scene from a season three episode that includes Bucky Barnes/The Winter Solider (Sebastian Stan) driving incognito with the Alexei Ivanovich Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour) trying to get past a police checkpoint that is being manned by Bill Foster, aka Giant Man, or sometimes Black Goliath, (voiced by Laurence Fishburne) and a new character named Ranger Morales. While not fully spelled-out, it appears that Foster is a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and he’s on to the subterfuge of whatever Red Guardian and The Winter Solider are trying to pull off.
Bill Foster appeared for the first time in “What If…?” in season two, with Laurence reprising the voice from his live-action role in “Ant-Man And The Wasp,” an associate and friend of Hank Pym, who fought as the hero Giant Man in the 1970s and 1980s. Winter Solider has been part of “What If…?” since season one, but Red Guardian is a brand new character to the “What If…” universe.
Marvel already unveiled the new characters that would appear in the upcoming “What If… Zombies” spin-off series, and perhaps they’ll have crossover with “What If…?” season three. The new characters revealed to be in the ‘Zombies’ series, said to be a four-part mini-series include Florence Pugh‘s Yelena Belova, Hailee Steinfeld‘s Kate Bishop, Randall Park‘s Jimmy Woo, Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, Iman Vellani‘s Ms. Marvel, Andy Le‘s Death Dealer, and Awkwafina‘s Katy, and yes, David Harbour’s Red Guardian.
The clip ends with “coming soon,” a “What If…?” season three logo and a promise that the series will be “streaming soon.” How soon is soon and could season three be right around the corner? That’s currently unknown. Disney had previously only revealed three animated shows coming to Disney+ in 2024, “X-Men ’97,” “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man,” and “Eyes of Wakanda,” so perhaps there are more surprise announcements to come. In the world of live-action, Marvel has only announced one series for 2024, and that’s “Agatha: The Darkhold Diaries,” not scheduled to arrive until fall 2024 (you can see our 2024 TV Preview here). Complicating things somewhat, “Marvel Zombies” was expected next but was not announced in Marvel’s recent 2024 slate. We’ll have to keep an ear and eye out for more unexpected announcements.