[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Marvel's What If...?, Season 1, Episode 9, "What If... The Watcher Broke His Oath?"]
The season finale of Marvel's What If...? revealed just how interconnected each episode of the animated series ended up being, with characters from all eight previous installments returning for an epic battle against the Infinity Stone-powered Ultron. And, once again, the storytelling was enhanced by the involvement of many Marvel Cinematic Universe actors as the characters they originated — this time, in animated form.
As always, the voice cast was led by the wonderful Jeffrey Wright, who I sincerely hope gets to continue on in some form with the character of The Watcher beyond a second season — though it might be tricky for him to match the character's unique proportions in live-action. But in addition, here are the MCU mainstays who re-appeared for What If...? Episode 9, "What If... The Watcher Broke His Oath?"...
Samuel L. Jackson - Nick Fury
Hayley Atwell - Peggy Carter / Captain Carter
Frank Grillo - Brock Rumlow
Chadwick Boseman - T'Challa / Black Panther / Star Lord T'Challa
Michael B. Jordan - Killmonger
Chris Hemsworth - Thor
Benedict Cumberbatch - Doctor Strange / Strange Supreme
Toby Jones - Arnim Zola
Tom Hiddleston - Loki
Kurt Russell - Ego
In addition, the cast did bring in one new MCU actor, as part of the episode included a Captain America: The Winter Soldier redo with Captain Carter in the role of Steve Rogers. Key to that was bringing back UFC fighter and actor Georges St-Pierre, who originated the role of Batroc in Winter Soldier and also reappeared as the character in this spring's Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
This week also featured the return of the all-star stand-ins who, over the course of the season, have played the roles Chris Pratt, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Leticia Wright, and James Spader were not available to play in animated form:
Brian T. Delaney - Peter Quill
Mick Wingert - Tony Stark / Iron Man
Lake Bell - Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Ozioma Akagha - Shuri
Ross Marquand - Ultron / Sub-Ultron Sentries
Plus, we had one new addition to this roster this week, as Cynthia McWilliams stepped in for Zoe Saldana to play the role of a heavily armored Gamora from an as-yet-unseen universe. McWilliams has had a long career of working in television, with roles including Detective Joan Bennet on the Amazon Prime series Bosch and Gabriella Manning on ABC's country music drama Nashville.
The second season of Marvel's What If...? has already been written, according to head writer A.C. Bradley in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, and the focus will be less apocalyptic:
"Going into the second season, we're sticking with anthology form, and it's going to be all-new stories, lots of fun, new heroes, and pulling more from Phase Four than we were obviously able to this season," she says. "Hopefully, we'll see hints of Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Black Widow characters. The fun of What If...? is that we get to explore the entire infinite multiverse, so we try and bounce around as much as we can. I want to play with all these characters, and as much as I love Captain Carter, we've got to share the love. I'm very excited to show new worlds, new heroes."
So, fingers crossed that they'll be able to add Simu Liu and Rachel Weisz to the voice cast next season. Meanwhile, What If...? Season 1 is streaming now on Disney+.