Draft:What If... Strange Supreme Intervened?

"What If... Strange Supreme Intervened?" is the ninth episode and season finale of the second season and eighteenth episode overall of the American animated television series What If...?, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.The episode was written by Matthew Chauncey and Ryan Little and directed by Bryan Andrews.

Jeffrey Wright narrates the series as the Watcher, with this episode also starring the voices of Hayley Atwell, Benedict Cumberbatch, Devery Jacobs, Cate Blanchett, Feodor Chin, Clancy Brown, Josh Keaton, and Stanley Tucci. Work on a second season of What If...? had begun by December 2019, with Andrews and head writer A. C. Bradley returning from the first season. Animation was provided by Stellar Creative Labs, with Scott Wright serving as head of animation.

"What If... Strange Supreme Intervened?" was released on Disney+ on December 30, 2023.

Plot
Stephen Strange Supreme takes Captain Peggy Carter to his Sanctum Infinitum, where he reveals that he has been capturing various "universe-killers" to atone for his past sins. Strange asks Carter to assist with capturing an escaped variant, who fled to a universe where Hydra used the Tesseract to destroy the world. Carter agrees, in spite of the Watcher's warning. She encounters Kahhori, who reveals that Strange had actually been capturing both heroes and villains from various universes to feed to the Forge, a contraption he created in order to resurrect his own universe, which he indirectly destroyed trying to avert Christine Palmer's death. As Strange attempts to kill Kahhori, Carter frees the imprisoned variants in the Sanctum, starting a massive riot and allowing her and Kahhori to escape from Strange. They run into Black Panther Killmonger, but Kahhori teleports him out of his Infinity Armor, allowing Carter to use it. Carter and Kahhori confront Strange at the Forge, where the latter begins feeding the variants to it. Carter is assisted by the variants who lend their weapons to her aid as Kahhori sends them back to their universes, while Strange is slowly taken over by his demonic self. Eventually, Carter manages to separate Strange from his demonic counterpart. As the Forge begins to collapse, Strange sacrifices both him and his demonic self to the Forge. The Watcher teleports Kahhori back to her universe and takes Carter to his dimension, where he reveals that Strange's universe had been restored, though at the cost of his own existence in it. Carter asks the Watcher to show her the multiverse before taking her home.

Development
In December 2019, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed that work had already begun on a second season of the animated anthology series What If...?, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name. It explores how the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films would be altered if certain events occurred differently. A. C. Bradley and Bryan Andrews returned from the first season as head writer and lead director, and they executive produce alongside Brad Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Victoria Alonso. Matthew Chauncey wrote the ninth episode, titled "What If... Strange Supreme Intervened?". It was released on Disney+ on December 30, 2023.

Writing
Once a Captain Carter arc for the season had been decided, the creatives kept returning to the idea of having Doctor Strange Supreme return as the season's villain. Bradley did not want Strange to be redeemed, calling him a "tragic character"; this is juxtaposed against Captan Carter, who is the hero because she makes a choice for the greater good, if it is at her own expense. Kahhori was included as Carter's ally in the episode as a way to indicate the character was "not just a one off" and exists as part of the larger MCU. During the episode's development, it was unknown if the series would get a third season, so the episode wraps up many plot points from the first two seasons in an "emotionally satisfying" way, as well as includes many Easter eggs as the universe killers and heroes, with the creatives wanting to "give [the series] a big send off" by including virtually every asset and design built for the series thus far.

Casting
Jeffrey Wright narrates the episode as the Watcher, with Marvel planning to have other characters in the series voiced by the actors who portrayed them in the MCU films. The episodes stars Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter / Captain Carter, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange Supreme / Demon Strange, Devery Jacobs as Kahhori, Cate Blanchett as Hela, Feodor Chin as Xu Wenwu, Clancy Brown as Surtur, Josh Keaton as Steve Rogers, and Stanley Tucci as Abraham Erskine.

Animation
Animation for the episode was provided by Stellar Creative Labs, with Scott Wright serving as head of animation. Andrews developed the series' cel-shaded animation style with Ryan Meinerding, the head of visual development at Marvel Studios. Though the series has a consistent art style, elements such as the camera and color palette differ between episodes. The episode ends with a shot of the multiverse tree, first seen in the Loki season two finale episode. This was not originally intended for the episode, given Loki season two had not been shot yet when production was occurring for this episode, with another image showcasing the MCU multiverse planned in its place that Andrews called "big and insane" with Jack Kirby influence. He also noted this image was similar to the multiverse imagery seen at the end of the Loki season one finale. Once Marvel Studios knew the multiverse tree would be featured in Loki, they approached the What If...? team to include it instead of their other image. Both series' teams worked concurrently on the tree's design as they each had similar deadlines, with Andrews believing they were "informing each other" on its design.