Did What If Just Erase A Major Marvel Character?
The laws of the multiverse are unforgiving.
Marvel’s What If has introduced us to countless versions of old heroes, but the series hasn’t been shy about playing favorites: across its three seasons, one particular variant has played a larger role than the rest. Captain Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) was the first hero to get a major makeover in What If, going from Captain America’s steely love interest to a super soldier in her own right. Her adventures have brought her beyond the physical plane, face to face with Uatu the Watcher (Jeffrey Wright), and even into live-action with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Captain Carter is by far the biggest success of What If, as she’s one of the series’ large cast to make the jump to the MCU proper. With Atwell joining the cast of the latest Avengers movie, many assumed that her variant would continue to play a major role in Marvel’s Multiverse Saga. Avengers: Doomsday could do what Doctor Strange couldn’t, and give the character a more worthwhile story in live-action. But as much as she deserves the spotlight, her latest What If appearance is already casting doubt on that theory; in fact, it may have removed her from the multiverse altogether.
Spoilers ahead for What If Season 3 Episode 8.
What If Season 3 brings its conflict to a new dimension.
What If’s Season 3 finale is a two-parter, following Uatu as he answers for his “crime” of meddling with the multiverse. He’s pulled from his post and brought before a council of other Watchers: the Executioner (Darin De Paul), The Incarnate (DC Douglas), and The Eminence (Jason Isaacs). Peggy and her team, comprised of Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith), Kahhori (Devery Jacobs), and Byrdie (Natasha Lyonne), launch a daring mission into the Fifth Dimension to save him. Uatu even imbues them with the power of the Watchers to battle the council.
In the end, though, the council remains too strong. They attempt to wipe every version of our heroes from the multiverse itself, and nearly succeed. Uatu and his allies only survive thanks to Peggy’s heroic sacrifice; she launches herself at the council and seems to take the brunt of their attack. When the dust settles, Storm, Kahhori, Byrdie, and all their variants remain. Captain Carter, however, is gone, as is every other version of her that’s ever existed.
Carter sacrificed herself to protect Uatu and her allies. What’s next?
Though parts of What If have crossed over into live-action and informed events in the Sacred Timeline, Peggy’s destruction is the first development that echoes in every Marvel universe. The Council of Watchers just erased her from any timeline she’d ever touched, and even erased the memory of her from the lives of those who knew her. It’s like Doctor Strange’s spell in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but on a multiversal scale; though Uatu swears he can still feel someone “watching over” him, implying that Peggy’s spirit somehow persisted.
What does this mean for the future of the MCU? Are Peggy and all her variants actually gone, or has she become one with the multiverse itself, similar to Loki’s ascension in Loki Season 2? As Uatu explains at the end of Episode 8, life goes on throughout the multiverse, paving the way for newer, weirder variants of characters we know and love to eventually appear. There’s a sense that Peggy has become a sort of Watcher herself, one that’s somehow even more powerful (and distant) than Uatu and his elders. What If has definitely ruled out most chances of Captain Carter returning to live-action, but Marvel may have much bigger plans for the character.
When Atwell appears in Doomsday, will it be as an astral, all-knowing version of Peggy? Will she find a way to return to the material plane? Time will tell, but What If just made the future of the multiverse much more interesting.
