Marvel’s first trailer for What If…? season 3 will feature a Disney Plus crossover episode with highly-rated show X-Men 97, sort of

The first trailer for What If…? season 3 has been released onlineOne of the Marvel TV show’s final eight episodes will feature Storm from X-Men 97Season 3 will debut on December 22, with new episodes airing daily until December 30

The first trailer for What If…? season 3 has been released online – and the animated show’s final installment will feature a curious crossover with X-Men 97.

Well, sort of. The Marvel TV series’ third and final season, which makes its Disney Plus debut on December 22, will include a story starring – or, at the very least, featuring – Storm, who’ll be voiced by none other than X-Men 97 actor Alison Sealy-Smith. The weather-controlling, omega-level mutant superhero, whose real name is Ororo Munroe, won’t show up as a member of the X-Men, though. As season 3’s trailer reveals, in one of the Marvel multiverse’s seemingly infinite realities, it’s Storm, not Thor, who wields the hammer known as Mjolnir and is this universe’s Goddess of Thunder.

It’s unclear which episode Storm will show up in. However, she’s seen battling the tentacled leviathan that Captain Carter fought in What If…?‘s first season, so it’s possible that Carter enlists Storm’s help to combat the eldritch titan. The teaser certainly makes out that this will be the case, with Carter and Kahhori – the latter being a brand-new Marvel character who was introduced in season 2 – discussing the prospect of calling for aid to defeat an off-screen foe. Marvel has previous form for misdirecting audiences in its trailers though, so I suspect the Carter and Kahhori-starring scene, plus the Storm-led one, towards the end of season 3’s trailer aren’t part of the same episode.

Regardless, season 3 of the Marvel Phase 5 TV series, whose release date was previously announced when Marvel revealed its full TV lineup for late 2024 and all of 2025, will be the animated offering’s final season. And, with the comic-book giant set to call time on Uatu the Watcher’s journey through the multiverse, it seems that Marvel is going all out to make What If…?‘s final hurrah the biggest and best season yet.

We already knew that season 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) show would feature an episode centered on a buddy-cop road trip starring Bucky Barner/The Winter Soldier and Red Guardian. Indeed, in December 2023, a season 3 sneak peek, which you can view above, was released as a post-credits season 2 stinger.

The arrival of What If…? season 3’s first teaser, though, gives us a much clearer picture of the other stories that’ll be part of the animated anthology show’s last outing on Disney Plus, aka one of the world’s best streaming services. One of the more promising episodes appears to be a Power Rangers / general Mecha-inspired entry, which sees Sam Wilson’s Captain America lead a new Avengers team against a kaiju-sized threat. Part of that tale will see Earth’s Mightiest Heroes control giant robots (otherwise known as mechs) that, when combined, form a Power Rangers-style Megazord. Color me incredibly intrigued.

There are plenty of other interesting-looking narratives that’ll comprise season 3’s eight-episode run. A Shang-Chi and Kate Bishop western team-up, the return of Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight and X-Men villain Apocalypse, the arrival of some evil-looking Watchers (better *ahem* watch yourself, Uatu…), and an Eternals-centric story starring Agatha Harkness, aka everyone’s favorite bewitching anti-hero from WandaVision and Agatha All Along, are just some of the other potential festive treats that lie in store for us. Carter and Kahhori notwithstanding, we’ll also be reunited with Nebula and Howard the Duck, who featured in season 2 episode 1.

Will season 3 be epic enough to finally secure What If…? a spot in our best Disney Plus shows guide? Based on its positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes (RT), you could argue that it deserves a place now, but we know that RT users only account for a fraction of a series’ global fanbase. In short: season 3 will need to wow more people if it’s going to earn a permanent position on said list.

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