Why You NEED To Watch What If Before Multiverse of Madness
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen tremendous growth in the last few years. This 2020 pandemic did slow them down a bit right after the release of Infinity War, but they bounced back with incredible vigor in 2021. All the delayed production schedules were adhered to and we received a tsunami of content in 2021. This meant that the series arc of the MCU was fast-tracked and we did not have time to process what we were seeing. Understandably, not everyone watches everything that the studio produces. But you must remember that everything is connected in the MCU. Here is why you NEED to watch What If before Multiverse of Madness.
Doctor Strange 2 is one of Marvel’s most ambitious projects. It is will be the first movie to embrace the concept of the multiverse in its entirety. Rather than the character being a multiverse cop (Loki) other characters coming to the MCU (No Way Home), Multiverse of Madness will focus on Strange’s journey to save the MCU and the multiverse. But he won’t be the only one gliding through universes. The promotional material for the movie has been showcasing different Strange variants that will form part of the movie. Moreover, we are set to get characters like Professor X and Captain Carter in the MCU. These characters have only been teased at this point but their inclusion in the movie will surely change the dynamic of the typical MCU story.
Why You Need To Watch What If
There is only 1 show in the entire MCU that embraces the concept of the multiverse in its entirety and that show is What If. It seems that Marvel Studios chose to produce this animated feature with as much freedom as they could afford their writers. Marvel Studios wanted to see just how far they could go and how many fans would appreciate it. What If episode 4 is directly relevant here. That episode introduced us to Strange Supreme, a variant of Doctor Strange who learned absorption magic and used it to gather enough energy to change an absolute point in time.
Strange Supreme’s goal was to save Christine Palmer from dying in the car crash, he achieved his goal but his universe unraveled as a consequence of his actions. This is the kind of thing that we can expect to see in Multiverse of Madness. Wong even warns Strange in the latest TV Spot, “This path…. exacts a heavy toll…”. Then there is also the inclusion of Captain Carter in the movie, which we expect will be a different variant than the one who showed up in What If.
Even if that is the case one should watch episodes 1 and 4 of What If to get a back story for these characters. Like No Way Home, Multiverse of Madness will rely on audiences’ prior knowledge to introduce its characters and move through the plot quickly. What If has shown us that when you deal with the multiverse it is more important to focus on the What and the Why rather than the Who. With infinite parallel universes in the palm of your hand, characters can be replaced and reorganized as often as you want.
The Future
In this scenario, Death becomes meaningless and we get a renewed variant to carry on where the last one left off. The tone of action and consequence is replaced with a constant feeling of impending doom that will not just wipe away one life but wipe away all of them. Again, What If Episode 4 is a very good example of this. It doesn’t matter what your intentions are, one needs to be mindful of a lot of things when messing with the multiverse. Infinite realities melding together in infinitely different ways is sure to cause some chaos in the MCU.
As things reach a fever pitch, it will do us a lot of benefits to having as much information as we can gather. Multiverse of Madness will work to surprise and scare us. We are going to be receiving the horror movie of Raimi’s dream on 6 May 2022.
So let us know what you think about our recommendation down in the comments and keep watching this space for everything Marvel, DC, and Hollywood. Excelsior!!!
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