What If...? promises to take us to some crazy new versions of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but there were some concepts that didn't make it into the series. Vanity Fair has the scoop on some of them following a conversation with Head Writer A.C. Bradley and director Bryan Andrews, including a monstrous take on Spider-Man and a version of Iron Man who blasted into outer space alongside Pepper Potts.
However, one of the most intriguing would have explored the fallout from Captain America falling off that train instead of Bucky Barnes. "My idea was, if Steve fell off the train, we would jump forward in time," Bradley explains, revealing that this Captain HYDRA was going to be the polar opposite of The Winter Soldier by working in the open as the organisation's representative.
"Steve Rogers is the kind of man that when he believes something is right, he goes to the ends of the Earth to do it. But he actually is not a very good soldier. He doesn’t follow orders," the writer says. "So if he’s brainwashed by Hydra to believe that Hydra is right, he’s going to go full throttle."
With that, Peggy Carter, Howard Stark, and Bucky would have head teamed up to take down Captain HYDRA with an assist from an unexpected ally. "The fun twist is that it would have been Red Skull, who has now been replaced by Captain HYDRA. They would have had to stop [Rogers] and then make him remember who he really is."
We're not entirley sure why this didn't happen, but we can only hope Marvel Studios has live-action plans for this villainous version of the character.
Of course, What If...? isn't the only Marvel series to launch on Disney+ this year, and the team working on the animated show soon learned that they had to avoid focusing too much on the leaks from WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and Loki.
"We had Loki with Thor’s hammer, like Loki was worthy," Andrews confirms. "At first it seems superficial, but how do you get to that point without changing who he is? You’re given a thousand questions to answer. It’s like, Oh, did he stay a Frost Giant? Was Odin not a dick and taught him better? You know what I mean? There are so many aspects of that life you can explore."
"They didn’t want us to go there because basically they were doing that in the Loki series."
It sounds like Marvel Studios already has season two of What If...? mapped out, so we shouldn't bank on seeing these concepts revisited for the time being. Still, it's always fun to ask, "what if...?"