It was just several days ago that What If… ? Season 3 premiered to those with a Disney+ subscription, but because a new episode is dropping daily, this Marvel TV show is almost over, as it’s ending for “bigger universe reasons.” However, at the time of this writing, one character who hasn’t appeared yet is Storm, reprised by X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men ’97’s Alison Sealy-Smith. This version of Ororo Monroe wields Mjolnir, and while it’s cool we’ll get to see her put Thor’s hammer to good use before What If… ? concludes, one of the show’s directors wishes that another popular X-Men characters could have been included too.
Bryan Andrews, who directed four of What If… ? Season 3’s episodes, including today’s Shang-Chi and Kate Bishop’s Old West adventure and the series finale, told Agents of Fandom that he would have liked to thrown in Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Unfortunately, because of how long it took to develop the show, Andrews and his team didn’t realize at the time that would be an option, with him explaining:
In hindsight, I think we were kicking ourselves because, you know, it takes a while to set these things up and do these things. But it’s like we could have done more mutants this season, oh my gosh what the heck, but because at the time we didn’t know that they’re (Disney) gonna have all the Fox stuff back, you know what I mean, so we could have had a Hugh Jackman thing and you know, but oh well. Maybe, maybe there’ll be some (more What If…?) in the future and then we get to party with those guys. But at least we got Storm, that’s awesome.
Can you imagine? We already got Hugh Jackman’s Logan to bust out his adamantium claws again for Deadpool & Wolverine, the 34th of the Marvel movies in order, this year, but what if the badass mutant had also gotten to participate in another adventure set in the Marvel multiverse before 2024 wrapped up? Alas, for whatever reason, while the What If… ? team was able to work out an arrangement to use Storm in Season 3, the prospect of using Wolverine didn’t seem feasible at that time. It’s a shame, because it would have finally given Jackman to voice the character in an animated project after over 20 years of playing him on camera.
Fortunately, we weren’t lacking in animated Wolverine action this year, as Cal Dodd’s iteration of the superhero was present throughout X-Men ’97 Season 1. While the whereabouts of that Wolverine, as well as the show’s Storm and Morph, remain a secret as we wait for the arrival of Season 2, at least What If… ? will have its own Storm bring the thunder and lightning in more ways than one. As pointed out in the article, Storm’s inclusion in What If… ? is interesting because aside from original creations like Devery Jacobs’ Kahhori, the weather-manipulating mutant is the first instance of a Marvel character debuting in this series first without having already made a live-action appearance in the MCU.
What If… ? comes to an end this Sunday, December 29. Not to worry, as there are plenty of upcoming Marvel TV shows to look forward to on the 2025 TV schedule and beyond.
