What If gets slightly reduced episode count due to COVID

Marvel's What If...? — (Image credit: Disney/Marvel)

What If…? won’t be as long as first announced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Originally, both season 1 and 2 of the upcoming Marvel animated series were set to be 10 episodes each. But, executive producer Brad Winderbaum explained to Collider that the impact of the pandemic meant plans had to change.

"We had to push an episode into Season 2," he said. "It was just, honestly, like everything else, that was a COVID impact. There was an episode that just wouldn't hit the completion date, but luckily we do get to see it in the second season of the show." He added that "season 2 will also be nine."

Winderbaum also discussed the series' runtime. "We targeted a half an hour for each episode. Some of them come in a little longer, some of them come in a little shorter." He continued: "We wanted to tell as many stories as we could and we had a certain budget we had to work with so it felt like that 10 episode – now 9 episode run – was the right quantity."

The series is set to explore different versions of the MCU stories we all know and love, like Peggy Carter taking the Super Soldier Serum instead of Steve Rogers, and T'Challa becoming Star-Lord rather than Peter Quill. The huge voice cast features many Marvel actors reprising their roles, including the late Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa, Hayley Atwell as Peggy, Josh Brolin as Thanos, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster, Jon Favreau as Happy, Paul Bettany as Vision, and many, many more.

Jeffrey Wright also makes his MCU debut in the series as The Watcher, a being who (as the name suggests) observes the goings-on of the multiverse. The actor will also be part of the DC universe in next year's The Batman, portraying Commissioner Gordon.

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