WARNING: The following contains spoilers for What If…? Season 1, Episode 1, “What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger,” streaming now on Disney+.
The confluence of rumors and speculation surrounding Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are rapidly turning it into a catalyst for the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Four. Already, threads have appeared in WandaVision and Loki, as well as strong hints of tie-ins to Spider-Man: No Way Home, among others. But the implications from What If…? are perhaps the most intriguing, particularly Season 1, Episode 1, “What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?” It may have dropped a big hint about a possible Multiverse of Madness villain.
Doctor Strange has always trended closer to the horror end of the superhero spectrum than the rest of the Marvel universe, as a natural extension of his occult abilities. That carried over into his inaugural movie, with its dark themes of interdimensional monstrosities and occultist villains unleashing untold horrors upon mankind. Indeed, Scott Derrickson was known primarily as a horror movie director before signing on for Doctor Strange. That doesn’t look to change with Sam Raimi at the helm for Multiverse of Madness, and with the inclusion of the Scarlet Witch, audiences are almost certainly in for a trip to the dark and spooky end of the MCU.
That extends to speculation on the movie’s villain, which will presumably be someone on par with the first film’s Dormammu. The comics contain a number of viable candidates, and rumors of Mephisto’s imminent appearance in the MCU have never entirely settled, but one candidate seems to have picked up higher levels of interest, especially in light of What If…?‘s premiere. Shuma-Gorath, one of the Great Old Ones who rules over hundreds of dimensions in the Marvel multiverse, is exactly the kind of threat that belongs in a project like Multiverse of Madness, and What If…? might have given fans something more than rumors to go on.
Shuma-Gorath is an actively Lovecraftian creature, hinted at several times in the comics before officially making his debut in Marvel Premiere #10 in 1973. He appears as a colossal, multi-tentacled monster with a single, central eye. The name actually extends back much farther, to a Robert E. Howard story called, “The Curse of the Golden Skull.” Marvel held the rights to many of Howard’s works, and the figure matched well with Doctor Strange’s interdimensional adventures. He remained a central antagonist to Strange for quite some time, meriting his inclusion in the movie sequel on that alone.
Now, What If…? has added considerable fuel to the fire, with its climactic battle between Captain Carter and her universe’s version of the Red Skull. Deprived of the Tesseract, Hydra’s leader instead turns to the occult to gain his desires, and succeeds in opening a gateway to another dimension to summon a creature he calls the “champion of Hydra.” A series of colossal tentacles emerge from the breach, grabbing whoever they can. In a direct emulation of Steve Rogers’ self-sacrifice at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain Carter pushes the creature back into the portal, and the two of them disappear. She emerges about 70 years later in what is presumably a SHIELD bunker, with Nick Fury and Clint Barton looking on.
A number of Marvel fans immediately identified the monster as Shuma-Gorath, and indeed, the creature in What If…? displays similar features and abilities, including a colossal mouth full of fangs and an “aura” which drives the Howling Commandos to the brink of madness. Shuma-Gorath can also vary widely in size, meaning he can be exactly as big or small as What If…? needs him to be to fit within its interdimensional portal. The Red Skull’s occult connections are very much in keeping with the entity’s existence as a de facto Great Old One, and rumors persist that Hayley Atwell will appear as Captain Carter in Multiverse of Madness. If the monster she’s fighting at the end of the episode is confirmed to be Shuma-Gorath, it forms an elegant segue straight into the upcoming movie.
Speculation might not have run quite so rampant a few weeks ago. Before the events of Loki, What If…? looked to be little more than an entertaining outlier in the MCU: a fun place to speculate on concepts like Marvel Zombies that simply can’t fit into the canon timeline. But the Loki season finale set the Multiverse free, and from the look of things, it will be the key dramatic driver for the bulk of Phase Four. Little is confirmed yet, of course, and Marvel always keeps a few surprises in reserve. But suddenly, What If…? looks like less of an outlier and more of a key indicator of what lies ahead for the MCU. Subsequent promotional material suggests that Captain Carter may be a long-term resident. If so, then her tentacled foe will likely make a reappearance as well, and there’s only one upcoming project that makes sense for it.
The first episode of What If…? is now available to stream on Disney+, with new episodes airing on Wednesdays. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives in theaters March 25, 2022.
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