Warning: This post contains spoilers for What If...? episode 4.
When developing the design for its evil Doctor Strange, What If...? came up with numerous ideas for how to best represent the character's change. Each episode of What If...? has found new ways to turn the Marvel universe on its head, though the full effects of each installment's change have varied. The Captain Carter episode only covered the events of Captain America: The First Avenger, while What If...? episode 2 saw the extremely far-reaching impact of T'Challa becoming Star-Lord over Peter Quill. Now, with "What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?", the series has presented a scenario that's more like the latter.
This week's installment of What If...? saw Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange pursue some dark means of magic in order to resurrect his true love Christine Palmer. Torn up by grief, Doctor Strange spent ages pulling absorbing the life forces of various creatures to gain enough power to change a fixed point in time. What If...? episode 4 watched as he gradually became more and more monstrous, resulting in a rather terrifying version of the character fans know and love.
When approaching the design for the evil Doctor Strange, Marvel had a lot of options for which direction they could take it in. The studios' Head of Visual Development, Ryan Meinerding, recently spoke to CinemaBlend about the process and revealed it was Doctor Strange who went through the most design changes during the making of What If...?. He said:
I mean, that one was interesting because of all the stuff that happens to him in that episode, you know, the notion of what [Doctor Strange is] doing to himself to gain more and more power. Out of the main characters in the series, we probably went through a lot more iterations on him just because how that could be visually represented could take a number of different forms. And I think where he ends up in that show, in sort of his more monstrous form, was definitely part of that exploration early on.
What If...? episode 4 itself even contained a few different looks for the darker Doctor Strange. The most common one was not too far from his heroic look, only much paler with dark rings around his eyes and sharper cheekbones. Additionally, at a pivotal moment with Christine, Doctor Strange takes on a far more horrifying design with tentacles and wings. That must've just been a taste of what the team at Marvel came up with for this What If...? episode. As Meinerding pointed out, there were so many directions they could've gone in, and it would be cool to see what else they devised.
The animation style for What If...? has drawn criticism from some fans, but no one can deny it hasn't been effective in its ability to explore some unique visuals. The Doctor Strange episode is perhaps the biggest example of that so far, though each installment has had its own fair share of thrilling moments. With Doctor Strange poised to star in his second solo movie next year, there's a good chance some of the more striking aspects of his What If...? episode's visuals could make it into the film. Now that would be pretty awesome to see.
What If...? releases new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.
Source: CinemaBlend
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