The first animated addition to the entertainment world-conquering Marvel Cinematic Universe, anthology series “What If…?,” will debut next month and already folks are hyped for the elseworlds adventures. A series of tales exploring the stories of famous Marvel characters and events in their universe, if something had happened slightly different, is a standby of the comics world, and a natural choice to translate to the small screen.
But this absolutely will NOT be the end of the MCU’s expansion into animated territory!
During the NALIP Media Summit, Marvel Executive Vice President Victoria Alonso confirmed that not only are more animated shows definitely on the way, but that Marvel is establishing a brand new ‘mini studio’ to handle the emerging creations!
As of yet officially unnamed, the Marvel animated studio will focus solely on brand new animated content for the MCU and Marvel properties as a whole. Alonso said of the new studio (per Variety):
“We’re going to have out animation branch mini studio, and there will be more to come from that as well. We’re super excited about animated, which is my first love.”
While Marvel has had several popular animated shows produced concurrently with their live-action MCU counterparts- such as Disney XD’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Avengers Assemble”– having a devoted branch within Marvel Studios raises the likelihood of these shows having not only a larger impact and sharing the narrative world of the MCU, but also increases the chances of high profile performers reprising their roles in the shows.
There’s so much to explore in the Marvel Universe that there simply isn’t time for in big-budget movie productions, and adding a new studio for animation could add a whole world of characters and stories we can’t wait to see come to life.
“What If…?“ is set to hit Disney+ on Wednesday, August 11th.
