The Marvel animated show that explores the many ramifications of one or two changes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe might do these stories we know is back for a second season with bigger, artsier, and crazier alternatives. The amount of MCU stars back voicing their character seemed bigger than last season, Hayley Atwell, Jeffrey Wright, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hiddleston, Taika Waititi, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Karen Gillan just to name a few.

Last season the show was more about exploring changes to pivotal moments from the MCU like switching a character’s storylines with another, taking away characters from disastrous events, or from another one’s life. The changes were more centered on characters and storylines.

This season, they’re doing the same things regarding characters and storylines but they’ve added something that already exists in the MCU movies, they’re mixing and matching genres to the episodes as well. Just like Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a political thriller, and Ant-Man a heist movie some of these episodes have a specific tone and feel from a genre.

Review: This specific shift in the makeup of these episodes might be one of the reasons why I feel this season was less connected to the MCU at large. It’s true that the What If…? episodes are supposed to be stand-alones but last season seemed to have a stronger connective tissue to the MCU while here the show truly feels lost in the multiverse, like a box of chocolates with each filled with a different ingredient. Here we have a futuristic detective noir story, a Christmas story, a swashbuckling one, and even an 80s one.

The episodes are packed with story and feel longer than they are but in the best way. There are interesting interactions between characters that were never put together before and new team-ups to go with them. A new character and mythology is introduced this season and it’s emotional and quite epic. The jokes are on point even when they come from unlikely sources, and the action and fight scenes are close to perfect. The finale feels more personal and character-driven than I expected since not all of season 2’s episodes get to be connected to it. It’s a fun episode with great action scenes and cameos but there are a few frown-worthy moments if you’re nitpicky and know your MCU because they didn’t make much sense with what was established.

What If…? Season 2 was about more than swapping already established characters and delivered on so many levels.

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