(Photo: Disney+/Marvel)

The third and final season of What If …? debuted on Disney+ yesterday. The man in charge of Marvel Television, Brad Winderbaum, is now discussing why the animated series has ended, and it’s not because there’s a lack of stories to tell in the multiverse.

The animated series and the Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) take viewers into the multiverse and plays “what if” with familiar characters, giving them alternate identities and realities in the Marvel universe. Actors from Marvel movies sometimes return to voice their animated counterparts in the series.

Winderbaum said the following about the Disney+ series ending, according to EW:

“There are bigger universe reasons to culminate it now. If you’re a fan of the overall MCU, you’ll notice that the first season premiered after Loki season 1, when the Sacred Timeline blossomed into a multiverse and all of a sudden all these new stories emerged. That was when we started telling those stories in What If…?.

And at the end of season 2, when the Watcher takes Peggy to look out at the multiverse, it’s taken the form of the tree of stories that Loki sits in the middle of at the end of Loki season 2.

So the culmination of season 3 and of the series itself does fit in to the overall MCU tapestry in that way.

That being said, there’s infinite stories to tell with What If…?, and time will tell whether we make more. But for now it is, I think, a beautiful way to end this era and to culminate the story of the Watcher.”

However, Winderbaum does note that the series could return at a later date. Winderbaum teased the following about the series finale, which will be released on December 29th:

“I think What If…? should feel like a warm blanket. It’s a holiday release, it’s a new one every morning, it’s a little gift you get as you’re home with your family over the holidays to watch while you’re drinking your morning coffee or hot chocolate. And it has that joy and that warmth and that glow of the season, because these characters are very human and they are at times super-funny, but at times have to really deal with some life lessons. And so there’s a sense of melancholy. The ending is both happy and sad. And certainly for me, having worked on this for so long and for this being the show that launched the studio, it is very bittersweet.”

What do you think? Are you a fan of this Marvel series? Will you be sad to see it end?