Marvel Studios Planning ‘Multiple’ New Animated Series Following Debut of ‘What If…?’

Marvel Studios’ “What If…?” — which debuts on Wednesday on Disney Plus — marks a critical creative milestone for the MCU. As the title suggests, the show takes full advantage of the storytelling possibilities of the multiverse that “Loki” officially established. Each self-contained episode explores a different alternative storyline, like what if “Captain America’s” Peggy Carter took the super-soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers, or what if “Black Panther’s” T’Challa had been abducted from Earth as a child instead of “Guardians of the Galaxy’s” Peter Quill?The show also marks the MCU’s first-ever foray into animation — and far from its last. As executive producer Brad Winderbaum (“Black Widow”) explains to Variety, Marvel Studios already has “multiple” animated series “in various phases of development” for Disney Plus, on top of a second season for “What If…?” and a series of “photo-real” animated shorts centered on Baby Groot that are both already in production....