Hayley Atwell's Captain Carter has cemented herself as What If...?'s breakout star and the hero returned for a new take on Captain America: The Winter Soldier in "What If... Captain Carter Fought The HYDRA Stomper?" (the less said about that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness cameo, the better).
The episode kicked off with Peggy Carter assembling Earth's Mightiest Heroes at the Battle of New York in 2012, though the team looked a little different. Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, and Hawkeye were present, but in place of The Hulk was The Wasp!
A founding Avenger in the comics alongside Hank Pym/Ant-Man, the main reason she didn't appear in The Avengers is because former Marvel Entertainment Chairman Ike Perlmutter didn't want another female superhero on the team (it was a fight for Marvel Studios to even get Natasha Romanoff in there).
Now, What If...? Head Writer A.C. Bradley has shed new light (via Toonado.com) on how The Wasp came to join The Avengers, confirming it's actually Hope Van Dyne beneath the helmet and not Janet.
"Since Captain Carter - a woman - ended WW2, the feminist movement occurred immediately after the war," she explains in the X posts below. "This had a ripple effect across society leading to more female S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, heroes, [and] women in positions of authority."
"Since Peggy Carter wasn’t around to found S.H.I.E.L.D., that responsibility fell to Hope’s parents, Hank and Janet, and also Bucky, and his good friend, Howard Stark," Bradley continued. "All this [led] to Hope taking on the Wasp mantle earlier."
Bradley later shed new light on "What If... Iron Man Crashed Into The Grandmaster?" Revealing it was written way back in 2019, she explains that, "The original pitch was a Tony/Pepper love story with Tony [meeting] Peter Quill."
How do you feel about Hope being a founding Avenger in this reality? As always, head to the comments section below to share your thoughts.