What If...?'s first season wrapped up at the end of 2021 and, at the time, the show's creative team were talking about the second batch of episodes being released the following year.
Well, 2022 has been and gone and, outside of a Hall H-exclusive sizzle reel at last year's San Diego Comic-Con, updates have been few and far between. The animated series has clearly been delayed, something which is evident from the fact merchandise has been showing up in stores for several months.
While it was starting to look like What If...? might not return until 2024, one reliable social media scooper claims Marvel Studios is currently eyeing a December 2023/January 2024 debut for season 2.
They go on to add that the episode revolving around an Iron Man and Gamora team-up on Sakaar (which was cut from the show's first season) won't be the premiere but don't elaborate on which alternate reality story will be.
The reason for What If...?'s apparent delay is unclear, but the fact it may now return to Disney+ in a matter of months is very good news. For a while, it looked like animation was a major priority for Marvel Studios but this, Marvel Zombies, X-Men '97, and Spider-Man: Freshman Year are all taking their sweet time heading our way.
"We got so many episode ideas, and Kevin [Feige] was like, 'Just gimme a list of like 30.' And then Kevin couldn’t even whittle it down," What If...? director Bryan Andrews previously said. "Funnily enough, there were ideas that just kept staying around, so a couple of those ideas make it into Season 2, and then there's a few that might be showing up in Season 3."
"So many good ideas, so many fun ideas, some that were just way too crazy. They're just like, 'We're not ready for that yet.' So I think that’s why in Season 3, we'll see some of the crazy stuff that we were pitching out of the gate."
Stay tuned for more What If...? updates as we have them.