On December 22, 2024, Disney+ premiered the third and final season 'What If...?', which has received predominantly positive reviews from critics. In the series, the multiverse comes to life in new and exciting ways. The ensemble cast includes Anthony Mackie, Mark Ruffalo, Teyonah Parris, Simu Liu, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Kathryn Hahn, Seth Green, Samuel L. Jackson, Oscar Isaac, Laurence Fishburne, Tom Hiddleston, Tessa Thompson, Emily VanCamp, Dominique Thorne, Wyatt Russell, Hayley Atwell, and Jeffrey Wright. But what did the critics say?
Arezou Amin of Collider says, "What If Season 3 caps off the series with a bleaker final outing that ultimately manages to keep hope at the center of it all." Adding, "Without a doubt, Season 3 of What If...? is the show's bleakest yet. While the earlier seasons had riffs on Christmas movies, winks at the heist genre, or cartoonish showdowns with the episode's villains, moments like this are few and far between in Season 3. This isn't exactly a surprise. It feels as though the world around us has been moving in a bleaker direction for quite some time, and all media is a reflection of the time in which it was made, be it intentional or otherwise. The topics that What If...? Season 3 touches on are hardly new to the MCU, or even the wider superhero genre; greed, power, violence, prejudice, and subjugation remain at the heart of what drives the villains. Episode 6, "What If 1872," is particularly unafraid to directly call out the injustices its heroes are fighting, and unsubtly hints at similar issues still occurring today. What is new, however, is how utterly hopeless so many of the episodes feel.Yes, every story needs a low point in which the characters believe they cannot continue the fight; every Marvel movie has that moment. But the sheer, colossal, multiversal scale of the series really amplifies that helplessness, with the scenarios The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) chooses to visit feeling more cataclysmic than they usually do. Absent from this season is the lighthearted air of "What If T'challa Became Star Lord" and "What If Happy Hogan Saved Christmas," or the groundbreaking nature of "What If Kahhori Reshaped the World." Season 3 does have its relatively lighter episodes with fun concepts — those starring Howard the Duck (Seth Green) and Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) come to mind — but even those are tinged with the larger, cosmic scale of everything happening around them."
Alan French of FandomWire notes, "When you dig into the creativity of What If…, it starts at the animation stage. For all the cool storytelling tricks that the series hopes to pull off, What If… Season 3 has to push the boundaries of what is possible in the medium. Like the two seasons before, a mixing and matching of styles allows the show to soar. In the old West, the vistas and gunslinging shine bright. Beyond the cosmos, the monsters look bigger and badder than ever. Magic duels between movie stars are larger than life, and even adding film grain to the frames feels bold and interesting.What If… Season 3 does not work unless this integral piece of the puzzle works. It’s not only that it looks gorgeous, but it adds dramatic tension to every episode. The fight sequences remind us just how tired the action has become in the live-action movies. With stunning creativity, What If… pushes the physical limits and creative uses of the powersets of its heroes. Even better, the writers never focus only on battle. Their powers are just as integral to their interpersonal relationships and antics as they are in battle."
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| Image Courtesy of Disney |
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