Developing an animated TV show takes a lot of time, so What If...? was never going to perfectly sync up with what's happening in the live-action MCU. However, the lack of mutants in season 3 has disappointed many fans.
The inclusion of a Storm Variant (voiced by X-Men '97 star Alison Sealy-Smith) suggests it could be done. Alas, the Goddess of Thunder will be the only character with the X-Gene who factors into the series during its final year on Disney+.
During a recent interview with Agents of Fandom, What If...? director Bryan Andrews admitted that not being able to include more members of the X-Men ranks among his biggest regrets.
"In hindsight, I think we were kicking ourselves because, you know, it takes a while to set these things up and do these things," he explained. "But it’s like we could have done more mutants this season, oh my gosh what the heck, but because at the time we didn’t know that they’re [Disney] gonna have all the Fox stuff back."
"You know what I mean, we could have had a Hugh Jackman thing and you know, but oh well," Andrews added. "Maybe, maybe there’ll be some [more What If...?] in the future and then we get to party with those guys. But at least we got Storm, that’s awesome."
Marvel Studios always planned for What If...? to only last three seasons, mostly because the Multiverse Saga was meant to have begun wrapping up by now. Instead, last year's Hollywood strikes and an effort to get back to quality over quantity have delayed things slightly.
With that in mind, there was likely never going to be time to throw the X-Men into the mix. Storm is probably only there because production overlapped with X-Men '97 and she, unlike Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, was made available to Andrews and company.
What If...? returns for its culminating adventure through the multiverse. Watch as classic characters make unexpected choices that will mutate their worlds into spectacular alternate versions of the MCU. The Watcher (voice of Jeffrey Wright) will guide viewers as the series traverses new genres, bigger spectacles, and incredible new characters.
The first six episodes of What If...? season 3 are now streaming on Disney+. You can read our recaps of those by following the links below.