What If? leak reveals its incredible twist on Thor: Ragnarok

Marvel’s What If…? will give fans a chance to see stories and team-ups that would have been impossible to pull off in the MCU’s prime reality. In one of the upcoming Disney+ animated series’ alternate versions of history, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) was given the super-soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). In another alternate reality, certain superheroes — including Captain America — are turned into zombies.

Based on a new merchandising leak, it also appears that What If…? will show Marvel fans a very different version of Thor: Ragnarok — one where it’s not the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) who Thor (Chris Hemsworth) discovers on Sakaar, but another Avenger.

The Leak — Images of an alleged What If…? LEGO set started circulating online earlier this week, courtesy of Instagram user @1414falconfan. The set in question showcases a Sakaaran version of Tony Stark’s iconic Hulkbuster armor and comes with LEGO figures of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright).

That likely means one episode of What If…? will imagine what might have happened if, instead of Bruce Banner, it was Tony Stark who flew into space at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, ending up on Sakaar. The LEGO Hulkbuster armor looks like it was constructed out of junked materials Tony might have found in Sakaaran junkyards. Check it out below:

A Different Champion — Though they’ve shared the screen in multiple movies and exist as two key Avengers, Marvel never really found time to include extended scenes between Thor and Tony Stark. The two characters had a couple of memorable confrontations in the first two Avengers films, and they briefly interacted in Avengers: Endgame, but Iron Man and the God of Thunder didn’t share many moments beyond that.

Now, What If…? has the potential to explore what it would have looked like for Thor and Tony to establish a more fleshed-out bond on screen. Downey never missed an opportunity to flex his comedic muscles as Iron Man, so the character could have easily fit into the story and style of Thor: Ragnarok, which leaned further into comedy than most MCU movies.

Assuming that this leak is accurate, and there really is a Ragnarok episode of What If...? on the way, here’s to hoping that alternate history also paves the way for a scene between Tony and The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum). One can only imagine how those two might have matched wits.

The Inverse Analysis — The first season of What If…? will consist of 10 episodes, meaning there are likely 10 different alternate-history MCU stories fans can look forward to seeing in just a few short months. Only a handful of the show’s stories have been announced, so plenty about What If…? remains a mystery for the time being.

But this leak does seem to confirm that one of the show’s episodes will be all about Thor: Ragnarok, which could very well give die-hard MCU fans the Valkyrie/Thor/Iron Man team-up they didn’t know they needed.

What If…? will premiere on Disney+ in August 2021.