Last week's What If...? ended with Thor being confronted by an Ultron who had mastered the Infinity Stones. It appears the villain - in The Vision's body, but decked out in Ultron armour - has mastered the ability to travel between realities, and tomorrow's instalment asks, "What If...Ultron Won?"
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, What If...? Head Writer A.C. Bradley confirmed that a lot of what we've seen in the animated series up until this point will start tying together in the final two episodes. "As we battle toward the finale, we will see some of our heroes again," she says.
"And the Watcher [voiced by Jeffrey Wright] learns a few important lessons about what it means to be a hero and comes to a realization about how much these stories, how much these worlds mean to him," Bradley teased. "Going into the finale, a major source of tension is: Will the Watcher ever break his oath? Or will he remain who he is? Will he stay the Watcher, only observing the triumphs and tragedies? Will there ever be a story that forces his hand?"
According to director Bryan Andrews, it was always the plan for What If...? to feature a bigger story at its core. Some fans have chosen to tune out due to an apparent lack of connections between each episode, so now might be a good time to start catching up in time for this powerful Ultron's debut.
"It was designed to be a certain way, and some people have been vibing and savvy enough to notice that we're slowly seeing more and more of the Watcher's visual appearance as we move forward," Andrews explains. "And that was all orchestrated from the very beginning. It's all now coming to an arrow's tip point." Bradley, meanwhile, notes that whole tomorrow's effort "is its own episode, it does flow in to 9. You can watch 8 as a standalone, but 9 is — for once we actually answer the end tag."
Common sense says that tomorrow's episode of What If...? will explore how Ultron manages to defeat Earth's Mightiest Heroes. From there, The Watcher will almost certainly assemble the "Guardians of the Multiverse" we first saw in that promo art to save the realities this android is taking aim at.
Check back here soon for much more on this penultimate episode of What If...?