Should 'Star Wars' Have A 'What If...' Series?

Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka as Imperials

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Judging by the announcements at D23 (or rather, the lack of them), it doesn’t seem like Josh D’Amaro will change Bob Iger's approach when it comes to releasing new content on the company’s streaming platform, Disney+.

After Bob Chapek, who ran the Mouse House between 2020 and 2022, made a major push into producing as much content as possible for the new service, Iger, after his return as CEO, quickly reversed course, putting the focus on theatrical releases and cutting back on new shows for Disney+, both for Marvel and Star Wars.  

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Regarding the latter, the only Disney+ shows currently confirmed (aside from the obligatory LEGO special in the fall) are season two of Ahsoka and the continuation of the animated show Maul: Shadow Lord, both confirmed to be released next year.

One Star Wars show that has been rumored to be in development at Lucasfilm time and time again is a version of Marvel’s What If…?, set in the galaxy far, far away.

Back in January 2024, the scooper Daniel Richtman reported that Lucasfilm was developing its own What If...?-style Star Wars TV show, either animated or live-action. The rumor was picked up by several pop-culture websites, but at the time of writing this article, it is unknown if such a project was actually under consideration or if there were or are any plans to move forward with it.  

An Old Concept

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Season one of Marvel’s What If…? premiered in August 2021 on Disney+ and then ran for three seasons until 2024, even spawning a spin-off series, Marvel Zombies. But the comic series on which it is based already premiered in 1977.

The premise of the show is simple: What would happen if major events from the MCU occurred differently, like Peggy Carter taking the Super Soldier Serum and becoming “Captain Carter” instead of Steve Rogers turning into Captain America? Or if Thor did not have to deal with his (evil) brother Loki. These stories run concurrently with that of the “main MCU”, taking part in various parts of the Multiverse.  

Each of the stories is narrated by the Watcher, a seemingly almighty being who, as the name suggests, is intended just to observe the events, until he doesn’t and starts to interfere.

But the concept of changing one aspect of a story which then triggers completely new events isn't new to Star Wars either: Between 2001 and 2004, Dark Horse Comics released the so-called Infinities version of the Original Trilogy, with each film receiving a 4-issue coverage.

In the Infinities version of A New Hope, Luke fails to destroy the Death Star; in the alternate version of The Empire Strikes Back, he dies on Hoth before he could start his training on Dagobah, and in Infinities Return of the Jedi, Leia fails to rescue Han Solo.

A Pathway to Many Situations

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Unlike Marvel, Star Wars has never embraced the concept of the Multiverse. When Lucasfilm declared the former Expanded Universe to be no longer canon, they could instead have created a story featuring a cataclysmic event that created an alternate reality in which the hundreds of stories of the EU were still canon, just like everything that has come out since 2014. But they decided not to take this approach, and possibly for a good reason.

Still, there are ways in which a What If…? series set in the Star Wars “monoverse” could work.

When George Lucas created the first concepts for Star Wars, he envisioned the stories to be told by an immortal being, called a Whill (thus The Journal of the Whills). The Whills ultimately became the Force, but all three From A Certain Point of View anthology books include short stories that involve the Whills, beings that chronicle the events of Episodes IV to VI. So, if Lucasfilm were actually developing a Star Wars version of Marvel’s What If…?, one or several of the Whills could easily take the role of the Watcher.

Additionally, the last season of Star Wars Rebels introduced the World Between Worlds, a realm outside time and space that consists of pathways and portals to countless events throughout Star Wars history. It would be easy to use the WBW as the starting point for alternate Star Wars stories.

A Galaxy of Ideas, But…

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Despite Star Wars being “limited” to just one universe, there is no lack of ideas for What If…? scenarios. Here are some of the more interesting ones from the internet:

• What if Qui-Gon had survived The Phantom Menace and trained Anakin

• What if Ahsoka were raised by the Mandalorians instead of the Jedi Order

• What if Pre Vizsla had killed Maul

• What if Obi-Wan had turned to the Dark Side after Maul killed Satine

• What if Leia had been trained by Obi-Wan from a young age

• What if Grogu was not rescued by Din Djarin

• What if Grogu had stayed with Luke

• What if Plagueis had killed Palpatine

• What if Luke had joined Darth Vader

• What if Luke didn’t try to kill Ben Solo

• What if Ahsoka had killed Vader on Malachor

There is a plethora of so-called nexus events in Star Wars history, where decisions made differently, or events unfolding in another way, had the potential to alter the fate of the galaxy forever, but for a Star Wars What if…? to be successful, the key is to come up with compelling stories that take place after these nexus events. It is easy to postulate that if Qui-Gon had been able to train Anakin, he would never have become a Sith and there would never have been an Empire, but as we have seen with the MCU, history tends to resist being altered, and the final outcome might ultimately be the same as before, despite the path to this outcome being different.

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But Lucasfilm could surely employ writers capable of coming up with good stories for such What If…? scenarios, maybe even incorporating characters and events from Legends, like Mara Jade or the Yuuzhan Vong (although the first one is not likely).

There is No Try

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Like Star Wars Visions, the stories of a What If…? series would, of course, be non-canon. But Visions was always intended to be something far “out there”, being able to actively defy the rules that make Star Wars, Star Wars. A What If…? series still would need to feel “Star Wars-y”, in the same way the events of the Marvel series could have happened in the way they did, just in another universe.

Maybe Lucasfilm is hesitant to proceed with a What If…? series for Star Wars, fearing that such a show could be seen as a sign of inability to come up with new original stories and instead just copying something that has worked for Marvel. But although the concept may be similar, Lucasfilm could structure and probably also name) its show differently from Marvel’s What If…?: Instead of using a narrator (like the above-mentioned Whill), each episode could start with a scene directly taken from one of the movies or TV shows, alter an event, and then proceed from there (like in the Infinities comics). And while each of the Marvel episodes was more or less self-contained, a Star Wars What if…? series could tell a story spanning two or three episodes.  

But like in the Marvel pendant, Lucasfilm should try to get as many of the original actors to voice “their” characters as possible (in addition to the large roster of voice actors it already employs). And there is precedent for this, as Mark Hamill has voiced an animated version of Luke Skywalker in the Forces of Destiny shorts, Samuel L. Jackson has voiced Mace Windu in The Clone Wars feature film, and Oscar Isaac voiced Poe Dameron in Star Wars: Resistance, to name just a few.

Never Say Never

Image Source: EW

Also in 2024, What If…? director and executive producer Bryan Andrews revealed he wanted to do a Star Wars/Marvel crossover, but Marvel Studios turned him down:

"I think Kevin [Feige] really doesn’t want to cross certain streams. But we did pitch...we actually had a Star Wars/Marvel crossover,“ and continued: "It won’t rain on anyone’s parade. But it was just a love letter to old-school Star Wars. And it was great. And I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to do it. But we have thought about that stuff."

And now, two and a half years later, Lucasfilm announced that starting in January, there will be a 5-issue crossover comic series titled Star Wars/Marvel: Hope Assemble by Kevin Smith and David Marquez.

So who knows, maybe Lucasfilm has another surprise in store for the 50th anniversary of A New Hope, when it announces a new (animated) series that is set to answer questions like:

What if Jyn Erso’s Rogue One team had failed, or what if Darth Vader had survived Return of the Jedi, or what if Mace Windu had killed Palpatine…

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Sources: CBR, ComicBookMovie

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