What If...?: Delayed Episode Will Be Pure Comedy Says Head Writer

The recent episode of What If...? titled "What If... Thor Were an Only Child?" delighted fans because of its humor and light tone, which is a welcome change from the previous episodes which dealt with dark and matured themes. But as it turns out, it wasn't supposed to be the only comedic episode this season.

During an interview in Deadline's Hero Nation podcast, What If...? head writer A.C. Bradley discussed an episode that was supposed to be part of the current season but is now delayed to the second season. She revealed that the delayed episode is actually going to be "pure comedy" just like the recent Party Thor episode of the series.

Bradley said, "We did have another comedy episode in the season... more in the pure comedy vein... which is the one that has been pushed to season 2 due to COVID production issues..."

Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first season only has nine episodes, instead of ten. Until the second season airs, we will never know what the delayed "pure comedy" episode will be about. As for the recent episode, it was received well by fans and a lot of them were delighted by its humor so it's nice that another comedic episode will be coming next season.

In the same interview, Bradley also revealed that the running time of the episodes was supposed to be longer, but they have to keep shorter because of the COVID-19 pandemic-related production issues.

"What If comics ended abruptly and really dark to prove that the main timeline is the better timeline. We've used that as our reason to cut stories off a little bit shorter. All these episodes could have been 45 minutes. Some of the animatics were 35 minutes, but due to animation and Covid, we cut them a little bit shorter than we would have liked," Bradley said.

Also Read: All the Easter Eggs in Marvel's What If..? Episode 7

On the bright side, having the episodes around 30 minutes make the stories tighter and most animated shows are also around that running time so there's really no problem about it at all. What's important in the end is they were able to successfully tell a good story.

New episode of What If...? streams every Wednesday on Disney+.