What If Episode 8 ‘What If… Ultron Won?’ is now out on Disney+. Directed by Bryan Andrews, Matthew Chauncey wrote the 25-minute episode. It stars Jeremy Renner, Lake Bell, Jeffrey Wright, Ross Marquand, Tony Jones, Josh Keaton, Mick Wright and Alexandria Daniels.
Episode 8 of Marvel’s What If…?, entitled ‘What if… Ultron Won?’, housed some of the best animated sequences of the series so far. We’ve seen some great stuff from the show’s animation team to date, but they really had a chance to flaunt some incredible visuals in this one by keeping the central story fairly simple and the cast of characters small.
Here, we got to find out what would have happened if Ultron had snagged the vibranium body he had made for him in Avengers: Age of Ultron instead of losing it to the creation of Vision, and it turns out that the Avengers saved more than this world when they successfully completed that mission back in the day.
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Those "final days of destruction" that the Watcher mentions are brought about by the Avengers and their failure to stop Vultron from being created. The ensuing nuclear war brings a calm (of sorts) to earth, but why stop there? After achieving his mission for world "peace," Vultron steals the infinity stones from Thanos with surprising ease and uses them to destroy all life in the cosmos.
But not even that's enough for this maniacal robot. Sensing the Watcher's presence, Vultron realises that there's a whole multiverse of possibilities people to murder out there, so he starts by attacking our not-so-silent observer. The pair battle their way through multiple realities, including one where America's Ass has become America's Ass-In-Chief in the White House.
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In the end, Ultron gets so close to eliminating The Watcher that he’s at a loss and begrudgingly consults with Strange Supreme, who we haven’t seen since he broke his own world and got a Watcher scolding at the end of episode 4. It looks like Stephen might have what it takes to finally resolve the Ultron situation, but we shall have to wait and see.
The Watcher’s reluctance to intervene, given his oath, does seem to be buttering us up for November’s live action MCU entry, Eternals. Ahead of the movie’s release, many Marvel fans have wondered why the hell those ten immortal, superpowered beings didn’t step up to help humanity throughout its many apocalyptic woes, and The Watcher is shaping up to be a prime example of why standing idly by while atrocities play out won’t ever truly cut the mustard with those involved in said atrocities, or indeed us – the Watchers watching The Watcher watch.
Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see the team-up between The Watcher and Strange Supreme in next week’s finale.
