When writing the most “out there,” superhero-filled speculative fiction you can imagine, you wouldn’t think it’d be so simple to nail the plot of actual upcoming films. However, it turns out a team of creatives who truly know their Marvel are a lot more likely to overlap than you might think, and it’s caused a couple of hiccups in the upcoming Disney+ series What If..?
In a recent interview with Kakuchopurei, What If..? creator A.C. Bradley revealed she had to scrap an entire episode after learning she had inadvertently written half the plot of the next Guardians of the Galaxy film. While Bradley was initially thrilled when she was told Kevin Feige would love her idea, it turned to shock when the studio revealed Feige loved it so much, he had already approved director James Gunn doing it for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
“I pitched an entire episode. It took me a couple of days to break it. I was very excited about it. I went to Bryan and was like, here we go, this is what happens, do you think Kevin Feige would approve? He went, oh, yeah, Kevin would love that, that’s half the plot of Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3. I was like, you’re kidding, and he went, nope, good job, you guessed it. I was like getting ready to go home and crack open a beer and go, I’ll go back to the board tomorrow. So, that one I can’t do because the amazing James Gunn is already going to do it.”
Funnily enough, this isn’t the first time Bradley’s foresight and understanding of the MCU proved to be a slight hindrance to her. Back in 2019, Bradley told Discussing Film a similar story about her pitching an episode of What If..? that featured Jane Foster as Lady Thor, and subsequently being told “that was never going to happen.” While those words might have seemed harsh at the time, both Thor fans and Bradley now know it was because Thor: Love and Thunder was already in the works:
“I got a little angry and thought, ‘Why, because they don’t want a woman holding the hammer?’ I was very politely told, ‘No we’re doing it.”
While these developments have to be frustrating as creators, as a fan it’s both pretty interesting and encouraging to see just how in sync the creative minds running the MCU are. While we’ll still be waiting another year or two for Thor: Love and Thunder and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Marvel’s What If..? hits Disney+ August 11.