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Yes, there were Marvel cartoons before Disney+'s What If...?, and as any X-Men '97 fan will eagerly tell you, there have certainly been Marvel cartoons since then, but to Marvel Studios management, What If...? is symbolic of the quintessental type of animated series the company wants to make. And in an interview, Marvel Studios' head of streaming, television, and animation Brad Winderbaum talks about the show, and frames its upcoming third season could be its end.

"[What If...? season 3] feels like the completion of a trilogy," Winderbaum says in the latest episode of the Official Marvel Podcast. "It takes us to places that you'd never expect. It goes beyond the first two seasons and its exploration of the multiverse, and it pulls in characters that are very unexpected, and has a, what I think is, extremely moving and fulfilling culmination for a while to the Watcher."

That last bit - an "extremely moving and fulfilling culmination" for the Watcher, voiced throughout the series by Jeffrey Wright - definitely sounds like an ending for the cosmic character. Not a definite ending per se, especially given his "for a while" caveat, but Winderbaum does seem to be signaling the end of the Watcher's What If...? show with these latest comments. After all, he also calls the season the "completion" of the series to date...

The release date of What If...? season 3 hasn't been announced, but lead director Bryan Andrews has said its psosible for a "late 2024" release. If true, that it would be a tight turnaround, but stranger things have happened...

Want more? Make sure you've read our list of all the best Marvel Comics stories of all time, and get ready for all the free Marvel comics coming as part of this year's Free Comic Book Day / Comics Giveaway Day events.