What If Season 3 Finally Does Right By The Watcher
Marvel’s most mysterious character steps out of the shadows.
The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) is the one thing that keeps What If...? from being a straightforward anthology. The all-knowing, all-seeing being serves as the show’s dutiful narrator, who observes alternate timelines from a distance. It’s his task to watch over Marvel’s multiverse without tampering with its events, but it wasn’t until What If’s third season that casual Marvel fans really understood why.
What If Season 3 indulges in a bit of backstory, introducing the Watcher on his first day on the job. Having been mentored by the Eminence (Jason Isaacs), our Watcher has learned to observe impartially, forgoing any bias and any semblance of his identity to protect the multiverse. The Watcher even gives up his own name to serve, and he knows that going back on his oath will compromise the integrity of the Order of the Watchers. But as we’ve seen across three seasons of What If, the Watcher’s aloofness doesn’t last. He first breaks his oath in Season 1, forging the Guardians of the Multiverse to preserve humanity. And he’s meddled plenty since, saving entire timelines from what he’s deemed unnecessary destruction.
The consequences of those choices finally catch up with him in Season 3, culminating in a major showdown with the Order. The Watcher is forced to pick a side between the organization that gave him his power and the humans he’s grown to love. His ultimate decision may be a familiar one for comic book fans, especially as it finally gives the character a missing part of his identity: his name.
The Watcher faces major consequences in What If Season 3, but also reclaims his identity.
Though the Watcher was taught to “be no one” in his service to the multiverse, his encounters with Earth’s mightiest heroes taught him the importance of identity. “I am not no one,” he tells The Eminence in What If Episode 8. “I am Uatu.”
Uatu’s true identity wasn’t really a secret: he goes by that name in the comics, where his history of multiversal meddling is well-documented. Still, What If made a conscious choice to introduce him as a being without a name, which makes his decision to reclaim it all the more powerful. Though he’s been around for eons, Uatu’s big showdown with the other Watchers feels like the start of a new life. He’s got a long history of meddling, but now, he’s more than a passive narrator. With his ties to the Order effectively severed, he doesn’t have to worry about the rules of engagement: he can join the fight if he chooses, and protect those he cares about in any timeline.
What If is ending after its third season, but Uatu’s journey may just be beginning. He could potentially cross over into the live-action corner of the MCU, and even become the catalyst for future multiversal events like Avengers: Secret Wars. Whatever threat awaits our heroes, the Avengers will need all the help they can get. With Uatu on their side, their odds of success could be much higher.
