Here’s How The Wasp Fits Into Episode 3 of 'What If…?’
Warning: This article contains spoilers for episode 3 of ‘What If…’
The third episode of What If…? gave us a classic whodunit mixed with the superhero action we love and have come to expect. Plus, an incredible twist that’ll leave a lot of fans scratching their heads.
In this universe... every one of our original six Avengers are dead. No Black Widow, no Thor, no Hawkeye, no Bruce Banner/Hulk, and no Iron Man (who is briefly voiced by Mick Wingert rather than Robert Downey Jr.). Captain America (or perhaps...Captain Carter?) is still in the ice. The former five have all been mysteriously killed, and it's up to Nick Fury (pressured by an emboldened Loki and his army) to figure out who the killer is.
Right before she died, Natasha (played by Lake Bell, adding a notable animated Marvel role to her resume, which already included a great portrayal of Poison Ivy in Harley Quinn) managed to leave a voicemail for Fury. “It’s Hope. It’s all about Hope!” Fury is on the edge of calling Captain Marvel to save the day before he realizes what Natasha meant: Hope van Dyne.
He races to a location we find out is a cemetery. Hope’s gravestone is there, and who’s that creeping up behind Fury? Hank Pym (voiced by Michael Douglas). And he’s pissed.
Of course in the MCU, Hope is very much alive. We first met her in Ant-Man, where she recruits and trains Scott Lang to become the new Ant-Man (following in Hank's footsteps). She then takes on her mother’s mantle and dons The Wasp outfit to team up with Lang. She’s set to appear again in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (which will also feature our new favorite villain, Kang the Conqueror from Loki). So how did she die in What If...?
What happened to Hope van Dyne in What If…?
As Hank and Fury prepare to battle, they reveal how much like in the MCU timeline, Hank’s wife Janet was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent who died on a mission (the films later reveal her to be alive, but stuck in the quantum realm for three decades until Hank saves her). In this animated reality, Hope follows in her mother’s footsteps and dies during a S.H.I.E.L.D. mission outside Odessa, Ukraine.
Does that location sound familiar to anyone? No? Well, it’s the same place Black Widow mentioned being attacked by the Winter Soldier while escorting an Iranian engineer in the original MCU timeline. Turns out, Hope was the one who died there instead. It could be a small detail, or a tease toward another Winter Soldier return. Keep in mind that in the first episode of What If...?, it was Steve and not Bucky who was in a train accident, and who potentially was experimented on by Hydra. Just saying.
As an act of revenge, Hank decides to not only take out the Avengers Fury has successfully recruited, but anyone Fury could possibly recruit, including Thor, who Fury only just discovered, before the God of Thunder was immediately killed by an errant Hawkeye arrow.
So by now, things have gone really really off the rails. Only Captain Carter (aka Peggy), Captain Marvel and T’Challa (as Star-Lord) are the known superheroes active in the What If…? universe. When is the Watcher going to step in and set things right? We’ll just have to wait until episode 4 to find out. Are these episodes all even connected? Or are they all just their own separate worlds? We'll have to keep watching to find out, of course.
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