Television series

What If...?

Name: What If...?
Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
Released: 2021
Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Samuel L. Jackson, Mick Wingert

Other titles called What If...?: the 2013 film.

Science fiction
Dip in and out

Marvel's animated anthology series retools MCU films into 25-minute what-ifs: Peggy becomes Captain Carter, T'Challa is Star-Lord, Killmonger saves the world. Gleeful and clever, it's made for people who've already fallen in love with these characters, and it leans into the freedom animation grants. Bouncy, fun, occasionally genuinely affecting.

TVMaze rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy playing a familiar story's what-if game, where the fun is spotting which beloved moment has bent and how the characters react to the change.

Skip it if you want a single continuous story to settle into, since each episode is a self-contained detour rather than one ongoing thread.

What it asks of you: Short, bright episodes of about half an hour you can dip into one after another, keeping attention light and the tone mostly playful rather than heavy.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Loki2021

Same multiverse energy: branching timelines, cosmic consequence, and a protagonist who breaks the rules. Tom Hiddleston's delightful; the structure keeps surprising you. Both ask what happens when the familiar path bends.

But The first season took a while to commit to weirdness. If you want constant motion, the quieter episodes may feel slow.

The Boys2019

Another show that loves its source material enough to dismantle it. Brutal, funny, anarchic. It asks what superheroes would actually look like in the real world—just with a very different answer than the MCU expects.

But Graphic and misanthropic in ways What If...? never is. If you want to keep the fun intact, this might feel like betrayal.

Harley Quinn2019

An animated DC series with the same anarchic energy and voice-cast charm. It gleefully rewrites canon, loves its characters, and finds the joke in what happens when heroes stop playing by the rules. Frequently hilarious.

But Much filthier than What If...? and occasionally uneven. Some jokes don't land; the tone can feel scattered.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from What If...?

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Legend of Vox Machina2022

Both are anthology-adjacent narratives where the joy comes from watching beloved characters make different choices in high stakes. What If...? asks 'what would happen?', Vox Machina *shows* you answering that question in real time over multiple seasons.

An animated series built from D&D livestreams: chaotic characters living out a story that could splinter in any direction at any moment. Like What If...?, it's a love letter to ensemble casts remaking their own myths, but it's weirder and longer and genuinely strange.

But If you don't know D&D, the in-jokes and world-building assumptions might feel opaque. It's also more violent and sexual than MCU content.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse2018

Proves animation can reinvent superhero storytelling. Multiple versions of Spider-Man across universes, wildly different art styles, giddy experimentation with form. It's What If...? as a two-hour sprint.

But The animation style is aggressively stylized. If you prefer realism, this might feel too busy to follow.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse poster

DC's Legends of Tomorrow2016

Scrappy time-travel chaos where DC's B-list heroes save history through disaster and luck. Silly, joyful, completely unbeholden to continuity. It captures what makes What If...? fun: permission to break things.

But Deeply low-budget and inconsistent in quality. Seasons vary wildly; you'll have to pick your moments.

The Twilight Zone1959

The original premise-flip anthology: each episode asks what if reality worked differently? 22-minute self-contained stories with ideas that haunt you. What If...? lives in the space this show invented.

But Black-and-white and deeply of its era. Some feel creaky; the pacing assumptions are different from modern TV.

Watchmen2019

A superhero series that assumes you know the rules, then questions every one. Alternative history, costumes that mean something different, a structure that keeps pulling rug from under you. Ambitious.

But Dense, angry, and genuinely disturbing at points. It's not entertainment in the way What If...? is; it demands more and offers less comfort.

Blue Eye Samurai2023

A gorgeously animated series about a woman rewriting her own story in a world that won't let her. Technically masterful; every frame is painterly. It proves animation can be deadly serious without ever leaving the medium.

But Slower, sadder, far more adult than What If...? Violence and rage run underneath everything. If you wanted lightness, this is a sharp turn.

Severance2022

What If...? is about parallel versions of the same people. Severance is about parallel versions of the same *person*, and what happens when they collide. Same moral physics, vastly different register.

A miniseries about identities fractured and reassembled, told with obsessive formal control. Every frame means something; the premise branches like a tree. It's science fiction that trusts you to piece together its logic. Visually stunning and conceptually ruthless.

But Slow-burn and philosophically exhausting. If you want spectacle and resolution, this withholds both. Only seven episodes, so the commitment is real but the payoff is ambiguous.

Castlevania: Nocturne2023

Both take familiar narratives and ask what happens with a small change to the premise. What If...? does this with comedy and multiverse logic; Nocturne does it with blood and real consequence. Same narrative shape, totally different weight.

A gorgeously animated gothic action series that trusts its audience with visual storytelling over exposition. Bloody, stylish, and surprisingly moving. Each episode asks what happens when you point a classical story in a new direction and let it run.

But Anime-influenced, graphically violent, and sometimes obscure about its own plot. If you need everything explained, you'll find it frustrating.