What If…? Brings the Original Avengers Home for Christmas

Since the original six actors emblazoned their signatures on the screen during the credits of Avengers: Endgame, fans of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have wanted them to come back. The third episode of What If…? Season 2 gives fans the original Avengers back for a Christmas adventure, mostly focused on Happy Hogan. While it’s not exactly what Marvel Cinematic Universe fans may have wanted, it was the best way to revisit this history-making team. Of course, it’s not quite the original Avengers team, since a major conceit of the What If…? series is each episode exists in an alternate timeline.

This branch of Loki’s multiverse is close enough to the MCU fans know that it doesn’t really matter. Set sometime before the events of Age of Ultron, the Avengers are out doing holiday activities while Happy Hogan, Maria Hill and intern Darcy Lewis prepare for a big party. Justin Hammer, fresh out of jail, makes a move on the Avengers Tower purely out of spite for his “nemesis” Tony Stark. These characters are the stars of the episode, but audiences get just enough of the original Avengers team to warm their hearts with a little nostalgia. It’s more a stocking stuffer than a full-on Christmas gift, but it does highlight the best way for Marvel Studios to revisit this team while still keeping their main focus on new characters and stories.

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Not all the original Avengers team has moved on, of course. Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, along with Jon Favreau, Kat Dennings and Cobie Smulders, reprise their live-action roles. Scarlett Johansson, Hemsworth, Ruffalo and Renner have each appeared in new live-action projects since Endgame, after all. Still, part of the MCU’s current troubles can be tied to longtime fans comparing new characters (and their actors) to the original six who started this phenomenon.

Bringing them back (at least before Avengers: Secret Wars) would be, true or not, perceived as a defeat. This is a tough spot for Marvel Studios, too. Thanks to the multiverse, the MCU can have its new Avengers while revisiting the classic team, too. Since Johansson, Chris Evans and Robert Downey, Jr. didn’t return, the What If…? producers cast voice actors who deliver excellent approximations of those performances. Lake Bell puts her own spin on Natasha, while Josh Keaton delivers the earnest, wry Steve Rogers fans loved. Mick Wingert does an unapologetic Downey imitation for Tony Stark.

Individual fans’ mileage may vary, but each captures the spirit of the characters. “What If…Happy Hogan Saved Christmas” isn’t even a full-on revisitation of the original team. The characters appear in recognizable ways, but the story itself is centered on the Avengers’ support staff. The characters MCU fans care about the most are kept to the corners of the story. The episode feels like an extension of the Avengers stories fans know from the movies but avoids feeling like a rehash or a copy that fails to live up to the original.

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Future episodes of What If…? Season 2 will employ these versions of the characters, yet the multiversal setting makes it feel entirely unique. If this story centered on the original Avengers team doing superhero stuff, it may have fallen flat. Rather than a holiday treat for MCU fans who miss the old team, it could’ve just made them long for the proper, feature-length reunion they will probably never get. Instead, the glimpses fans see of the characters show them in ways the movies never could.

Natasha is on-mission, battling an ex-HYRDA ballerina in the rafters of a performance of The Nutcracker. Tony and Steve Rogers are at an appearance as a mall Santa and an elf. Clint and Banner are toy shopping. They’re just brief glimpses at their lives outside of being Avengers, but enough to spark fans’ imaginations about the sort of things they did together off-screen in the prime MCU timeline. These brief moments are played for comedy and amount to the equivalent of cameos.

Nonetheless, the Avengers assemble at the end of the episode for a final fight that isn’t really a fight. For all Justin Hammer’s planning, Tony is able to wrest control of Avengers Tower back from him with the push of a button. It’s not enough to satiate the fans’ desire for the classic team in action. Yet, it’s a new enough moment that once the episode ends, they might just click over on Disney+ to stream the first Avengers films. This is nostalgia used in the best way. It doesn’t try to recreate the magic, but offers just enough of it to give audiences an excuse to revisit what they loved in the first place.

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Taking a cue from Star Trek, Kevin Feige wants a “campfire scene” in each MCU movie. In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy and Spock begin and end the movie around a campfire. Rather than setting the Avengers around a fire singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” Feige feels each movie should include scenes that reveal to the audience why these characters are friends.

Sometimes the movies fail to do this, especially as the cast for the final two films ballooned in size. However, this episode is full of tiny campfire scenes. Tony and Steve Rogers spend Christmas Eve together, giving back to the public and getting up to antics. In the films, Clint and Banner may not have ever shared a scene just the two of them. But in What If…?, they’re Christmas shopping together, complete with Banner wearing a ridiculous holiday sweater. Natasha is flying solo, but she always did like to work on her own.

If Marvel Studios does decide to revisit the original Avengers in animation, “What If…Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?” provides a blueprint for how they do it. The feature films had to focus on the big superhero action, but series like this have the space for tiny, character moments that deepen their relationship. Even though this episode is not set in the MCU canon, it still opens a window on the original Avengers just enough for audiences to fill in their own subtext on the team’s off-screen friendships. The big question, of course, is should Marvel Studios revisit the original Avengers at all?

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Just as in Season 1, the second batch of What If…? episodes deliver beautiful animation that simultaneously feels lifelike and leans into the comic book origins. This episode in particular is enough to make audiences wonder why there isn’t a series of off-screen Avengers adventures set between the first film and Age of Ultron. It could provide fun, lower stakes stories that enrich the character relationships and the films themselves.

This particular episode was a treat for fans, revisiting the characters at a time when they were arguably at their height. For the majority of the MCU, Tony Stark wasn’t an active Avenger, and Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff and Scarlet Witch were on-the-run. Even with the freedom animation provides, an original Avengers special or series couldn’t match the spectacle of the films. Nor should it try. Rather, any stories with these characters should focus more on the characters and their friendships. It’s the one area where the films didn’t fully live up to fans’ expectations.

Yet, as Tony Stark said, part of the journey is the end. For better or worse, the MCU has moved on from the Phase 1 characters, mostly. If seeing the original Avengers again in animation becomes a habit, the story needs to be one that accentuates the films rather than try to repeat or rehash what they did. There are countless stories Marvel Studios could tell with these characters, and What If…? just showed how they could do it.

What If…? debuts new Season 2 episodes each day until Dec. 30, 2023, on Disney+.

What If…?

Exploring pivotal moments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and turning them on their head, leading the audience into uncharted territory.

Release Date

August 11, 2021

Creator

A. C. Bradley

Seasons

1

Number of Episodes

9