The final season of What If…? has arrived on Disney+, and the show is going out bigger than ever before. Literally. The Season 3 premiere featured “What If… The Hulk Fought The Mech Avengers?” with all the kaiju versus giant robot battles you might expect. And like with previous seasons, the show brought on a slew of celebrity voices straight from the MCU. So who’s who in the What If…? Season 3, Episode 1 voice cast?
We’ll get there in a second, but first a recap of what happened in the episode. And spoilers past this point. After a brief ’80s cartoon-style kick-off featuring the show within a show Go-Avengers: Heroes of the Gamma War, we discover that the situation is real, and how it happened.
The “what if” scenario here is essentially “What if Sam Wilson did the ‘on your left’ thing from Captain America: The Winter Soldier with Bruce Banner instead of Steve Rogers?” The two become friends as Sam tries to talk Bruce down with therapy, but it doesn’t work. Bruce hulks out on a boat, almost hurts Sam, and tries to take away his powers with more gamma rays.
It doesn’t work. Instead, he creates an Apex Hulk that spawns other, smaller monster Hulks. Tony Stark develops mech-suits to fight the Apex Hulk. They lose, and then the next generation of heroes manage to force all the monsters to the bottom of the ocean. Some sort of “Pacific Rim” if you will.
Ten years later, the Apex Hulk returns, more powerful than ever. Monica Rambeau sends Bucky to find Bruce Banner, against Sam’s wishes, while Sam and Monica head to the Arctic to fight the Apex Hulk. They lose, and Monica convinces Sam to go to Astra Island, where Bruce is hiding out, Colonel Kurtz style (that’s an Apocalypse Now reference, FYI). While Bruce won’t come back with them, he does give Sam plans to form the Mighty Avengers, aka a Voltron-style mech that can take on the Apex Hulk — who is now attacking New York.
For a while, the assembled (literally) heroes — Sam, Monica, Bucky, Moon Knight, Shang-Chi, Nakia, Red Guardian, and Melina Vostokoff — hold it off. But ultimately the Apex is too strong and knocks out the Mighty Avenger. Enter Bruce, who juices up a nuclear bomb with gamma so he can become a Mega-Hulk to take on the Apex Hulk. With a little help from his friends, he wins and takes the Apex Hulk’s spawn back to Astra Island to rule as king. The end!
That’s all well and good, but what about the voice cast for Episode 3? Let’s get into it, because some of them are MCU stalwarts — and some are not.
What If…? Season 3, Episode 1 “What If…The Hulk Fought The Mech Avengers?” Cast: Who’s Who In The Voice Cast?
Starting at the top of the call sheet here, Jeffrey Wright, as always, voices The Watcher. While he doesn’t have a lot to do in this episode, as he notes at the end of the half-hour big things come from small beginnings, and he’ll have a much larger part to play as the final season wraps up.
Sam Wilson is indeed voiced by Anthony Mackie, who plays the role in live-action in Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and multiple Avengers movies. He’ll return to live action in the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World, which coincidentally finds him fighting a Hulk, albeit a Red Hulk.
Mark Ruffalo also returns as the voice of Bruce Banner from multiple appearances throughout the MCU. He also does the “voice” aka the roaring of both Hulk and Mega-Hulk. Release the recording booth footage, Marvel!
Teyonah Parris also returns as Monica Rambeau. She previously appeared as the character in WandaVision and The Marvels, which left her stranded in the X-Men universe, so it’s nice to see her here again. Sebastian Stan is also back as Bucky, usually The Winter Soldier though here without the floppy hair and metal arm seems to perhaps be regular ol’ Bucky Barnes.
David Harbour plays Red Guardian, just like he did in Black Widow, and he’ll reprise the role in the upcoming Thunderbolts*. However, though Rachel Weisz did portray the voice of Melina Vostokoff in What if..? Season 2, she does not return for this episode. Instead, the role is played by veteran voice actor Kari Wahlgren. She’s appeared in everything from Mortal Kombat to Rick & Morty. She’s surprisingly never appeared on What If..? before, but will play another Marvel animated voice coming up: Aunt May on the forthcoming Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
After 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings introduced the title character to the MCU and then promptly forgot about him, Simu Liu is indeed back voicing the role. And same with Oscar Isaac, who returns as Moon Knight, last seen in his titular 2022 series.
Lupita N’yongo does not voice Nakia, but instead, the role is voiced by Brittany Adebumola. Adebumola has appeared in live-action in 4400, Grand Army, and The Other Black Girl. And “Adolescent Girl” aka the girl watching Go-Avengers at the beginning of the episode, is portrayed by Ozioma Akagha, who previously also voiced Shuri for What If…?.
What If…? Season 3, Episode 1 Cast List:
Here’s a full cast list from What If…? Season 3, Episode 1, “What If…The Hulk fought the Mech Avengers?” if you prefer to read it in list style instead of written out, as above:
The Watcher…Jeffrey Wright
Sam Wilson…Anthony Mackie
Bruce Banner / Hulk / Mega-Hulk…Mark Ruffalo
Monica Rambeau…Teyonah Parris
Bucky Barnes…Sebastian Stan
Alexei Shostakov…David Harbour
Shang-Chi…Simu Liu
Moon Knight…Oscar Isaac
Melina Vostokoff…Kari Wahlgren
Nakia…Brittany Adebumola
Adolescent Girl…Ozioma Akagha
Additional Voices…June Christopher, David Collins, Terri Douglas, Robin Atkin Downes, Alexandra Smith, Matthew Wood
Where To Watch What If…?
What If…? Season 3 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
The first episode of What If…? Season 3 premieres Sunday, December 22 at 3 am ET / Midnight PT on Disney+. One episode a day premieres after that, leading to the series finale on December 29, 2024.
Here’s the full list of episodes in What If…? Season 3, with premiere dates:
- Sunday, December 22, 2024: What If…? Season 3, Episode 1: “What If… The Hulk Fought The Mech Avengers?”
- Monday, December 23, 2024: What If…? Season 3, Episode 2: “What If… Agatha Went to Hollywood?”
- Tuesday, December 24, 2024: What If…? Season 3, Episode 3: “What If… The Red Guardian Stopped The Winter Soldier?”
- Wednesday, December 25, 2024: What If…? Season 3, Episode 4: “What If… Howard the Duck Got Hitched?”
- Thursday, December 26, 2024: What If…? Season 3, Episode 5: “What If… The Emergence Destroyed The Earth?”
- Friday, December 27, 2024: What If…? Season 3, Episode 6: “What If… 1872?”
- Saturday, December 28, 2024: What If…? Season 3, Episode 7: “What If… The Watcher Disappeared?”
- Sunday, December 29, 2024: What If…? Season 3, Episode 8: “What If… What If?”
Listen to MarvelVision:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.