[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Marvel's What If...?, Season 1, Episode 7, "What If... Thor Were an Only Child?"]
In Episode 7, "What If... Thor Were an Only Child?", What If...? doesn't go for immediate disaster and tragedy — instead, the episode reimagines how Thor's life might have been different, had Odin decided not to secretly adopt Loki as a baby and raise the two of them as brothers. Without Loki's influence, Thor grows up into a pretty happy but irresponsible party animal — so when his mother Frigga leaves him on his own, he decides to bring the party to Earth. The good news is that he still manages to encounter Jane Foster and form a connection to her; the bad news is that the intergalactic kegger he's throwing is destroying Earth. Even Captain Marvel can't manage to get him under control; fortunately, Jane Foster figures out the one thing that might make him stop, and not only is order restored to Earth, but a new romance blossoms. (Until an Infinity Stone-powered Vision shows up, that is...)
As always, Jeffrey Wright leads the voice cast as The Watcher, the mysterious figure whose version of channel flipping is to monitor the various alternate realities of the Multiverse. But this episode also features, once again, an impressive collection of core MCU talent reprising their on-screen roles. And that list would include:
Chris Hemsworth - Thor
Natalie Portman - Jane Foster
Kat Dennings - Darcy Lewis
Samuel L. Jackson - Nick Fury
Tom Hiddleston - Loki
Jeff Goldblum - Grandmaster
Cobie Smulders - Maria Hill
Clark Gregg - Agent Coulson
Frank Grillo - Brock Rumlow
Taika Waititi - Korg
Karen Gillan - Nebula
Jaimie Alexander - Lady Sif
Seth Green - Howard the Duck
Rachel House - Topaz
Clancy Brown - Surtur
Some takeaways from the above list: Today I learned that Clancy Brown did the voice for Surtur in Thor: Ragnarok! Life is an eternal journey of learning. This is also a fine time to point out that Rachel House, who returns here as the Grandmaster's compatriot Topaz, did some brilliant voice acting work in Pixar's Soul.
In addition to the above MCU alumni, a few key roles were filled by non-MCU actors, including:
Alexandra Daniels - Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel
Josette Eales - Frigga
Fred Tatasciore - Volstagg / Drax
Max Mittelman - Fandral
This was Alexandra Daniels' second time subbing in for Brie Larson as Captain Marvel (and doing a pretty damn good job of it) — the actress is still relatively new to the scene, with the most notable role in her filmography prior to this being the WGN America series Salem. Josette Eales is also relatively new to voice-acting, with her prior credits including Kroll Show and Covert Affairs; Fred Tatasciore and Max Mittelman, meanwhile, are mainstays in the voice-acting world, with this being Tatasciore's second time playing Drax in What If...?.
The end result of this episode was at the very least an enticing preview of the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, which will feature Natalie Portman's return to the MCU and hopefully the continuation of the Thor and Jane romance. But it was also evidence that What If...? has the potential to tell stories that aren't soaked in doom and gloom — there are still two more episodes to go, and we'll see how which direction the next ones go in soon.
New episodes of What If...? premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.