What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?
"What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?" | |
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What If...? episode | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 4 |
Directed by | Bryan Andrews |
Written by | A. C. Bradley |
Produced by | A. C. Bradley |
Editing by | Joel Fisher |
Original release date | September 1, 2021 |
Running time | 36 minutes |
Cast | |
| |
"What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?" is the fourth episode of the
"What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?" was released on
Plot
After successfully completing a rare
Two years after Palmer's death, Strange returns to that night using the Eye, but is unable to save her no matter how he alters events. The Ancient One explains that averting Palmer's death would mean he never became a sorcerer, creating a universe-destroying paradox as the event is an "absolute point" in time. Strange refuses to listen and uses the Eye to escape to the Lost Library of Cagliostro. He meets librarian O'Bengh and learns he can amass enough power to break an absolute point by absorbing magical beings.
After centuries of doing so, Strange is told by a dying O'Bengh that he is still not powerful enough because he is only half of himself. He soon learns that when he escaped the Ancient One, she used the power of the
After a battle between the two, Strange Supreme overpowers and absorbs his counterpart. He then uses his enhanced powers to reverse Palmer's death, but his monstrous appearance repulses her. As the paradox begins tearing reality apart and his surroundings collapse, Strange Supreme begs the
Production
Development
External videos | |
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What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands? | Marvel Studios' What If...? | Disney+, a promotional video introducing the episode's "what if" concept with narration by the Watcher, video from the What If...? Twitter account |
By September 2018,
Writing
The episode was written in February 2019.
Casting
Jeffrey Wright narrates the episode as the Watcher, with Marvel planning to have other characters in the series voiced by the actors who portrayed them in the MCU films.
Animation
Animation for the episode was provided by Flying Bark Productions,[8]: 33:56 [7]: 4 with Stephan Franck serving as head of animation.[20] Andrews developed the series' cel-shaded animation style with Ryan Meinerding, the head of visual development at Marvel Studios.[21][22] Though the series has a consistent art style, elements such as the camera and color palette differ between episodes.[7]: 4 After an early screening of the episode before animation work began, Feige said "It's amazing... I don't know how we're going to pull this off with the animation, but keep pushing it."[23] Concept art for the episode is included during the end credits, and was released online by Marvel following the episode's premiere.[24]
When designing an evil version of Doctor Strange, Meinerding looked to the idea that he had been altered by the mystical creatures he was absorbing and designed a "very odd-looking, malformed person". The creatives decided that they still wanted the character to be recognizable as Strange, so Meinerding instead went with a more human version of the character that is gaunt, with a darker costume, paler skin,[25] "sharper and more dangerous" hair and beard,[26] and dark circles under his eyes. Meinerding described this as a "classic" evil character look.[25] Another element that was adjusted is the character's cape and collar, which is bigger to give the two versions of Strange a distinctive silhouette.[27] The more monstrous designs that Meinerding originally did were brought back for the episode's ending.[26] This look incorporates the different creatures that appear in the episode, which were based on ideas from Andrews, Bradley, and storyboard artist Aram Sarkisian rather than any existing Marvel Comics characters.[23][28] They designed around 20 different creatures for the episode, and wanted the looks to both be interesting on their own as well as in the ways that they could temporarily merge with Strange as he absorbs them.[28] The design team went through more iterations of Doctor Strange than many other characters for the series as they worked out how evil he needed to be portrayed and how monstrous his final form should be,[25] as well as the other variations such as the character wearing a tux, injured versions, and 10 to 15 variations of him absorbing different creatures.[28]
One of the most complex environments to create for production designer Paul Lasaine and his team was the room where Strange absorbs the creatures. It is meant to be the same main library room that is seen earlier in the episode, and they initially planned to use the same space with the lighting turned down, but the way the shots were framed for the sequence meant they would have to create 60 or 70 different backgrounds for the scene. Instead, they created a new "big black nothing" location and painted six or seven columns that they could then move around the scene depending on the angle of the shot. Another difficult sequence was the abstract backgrounds required when Strange sees an illusion of Palmer near the end of the climactic fight,
Discussing the most challenging aspects of animating the series, Franck said nuanced facial expressions were at one end of that spectrum and gave this episode's conversations between Strange and Palmer in the car as an example. He said, "There's stuff [Strange] wants to say, but he can't say, or stuff he's willing to say, but she can't understand. All those layers of subtlety between text, subtext, and how deep it's buried" had to be conveyed.[32] Bradley and Andrews wanted to push how cinematic the series could be with these facial expressions to match with the voice acting, and Andrews felt this episode in particular was a "tour de force".[14] Bradley felt it had "beautiful imagery, some amazing action and hopefully a few good twists".[5] Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson was shown an early cut of the episode and described it as "terrific".[33]
Music
Composer
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Absolute Point" | 2:12 |
2. | "Evening Handsome" | 1:44 |
3. | "Something Reckless" | 0:57 |
4. | "Not Again" | 4:34 |
5. | "No Door" | 1:18 |
6. | "Maybe Nowhere" | 1:49 |
7. | "The Wrong Path" | 0:56 |
8. | "Absorption" | 2:45 |
9. | "Half a Man" | 1:11 |
10. | "Both Sides" | 2:47 |
11. | "When Are You?" | 0:56 |
12. | "I Am You" | 1:08 |
13. | "Whole Again" | 2:42 |
14. | "Crème Brûlée" | 2:25 |
15. | "Sorry" | 2:45 |
Total length: | 30:09 |
Marketing
After the episode's release, Marvel released a poster for the episode, featuring Doctor Strange Supreme and a quote from the episode.
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average score of 8.5/10 based on 5 reviews.[40]
Tom Jorgensen gave the episode 8 out of 10 for
Digital Spy's David Opie said the episode was "easily the best and most affecting" of the series yet, with Marvel Studios' darkest ending since Avengers: Infinity War (2018).[43] Amon Warmann at Yahoo! News thought the ending was even better than Infinity War's, believing that film had been undermined by Marvel's plans for future MCU films while the episode was a self-contained story with an ending that does not need to be undone. He praised the "relatable and heartbreaking" montage of Palmer's deaths, including Karpman's score for the sequence, and was very positive about the episode's visuals: he described the sequence where Strange Supreme absorbs the creatures as "appropriately nightmarish", and his high point of the episode was the fight between Strange and Strange Supreme which he compared to the fight between Strange and Thanos in Infinity War and described as "visually stunning, inventive, and fun to watch". Warmann thought the episode needed more time to sell Strange Supreme's turn to evil, despite Cumberbatch's performance which he felt was the strongest of the series' returning MCU actors so far.[44] Rosie Knight of Den of Geek gave the episode 3.5 out of 5 stars, calling it "a ton of cosmic fun" and highlighting the sequences where Strange Supreme absorbs the creatures and where Strange's Cloak of Levitation battles with Strange Supreme's cloak.[9]
Despite appreciating the way Palmer's death is used in the episode, Jorgensen did think McAdams had a "thankless role as little more than the source of Strange's grief".
Kris Naudus at Engadget discussed the return of the tentacled monster from the series premiere in this episode, calling it an example of an "underlying sense of continuity [that] has started to develop" within the series. She also compared the way that the episode played with the series' premise by having the Watcher talk with Strange Supreme to The Twilight Zone episode "A World of His Own".[46] Jorgensen felt it was an interesting development for the series and the Watcher to have him actively ignore a "character in need" as he does with Strange Supreme.[41] Naudus and Barsanti both also noted the expansion of the series' time travel logic to include absolute points in time, a concept that the time travel series Doctor Who is known for.[42][46] Opie speculated that the events of the episode could have an impact on the upcoming films Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, either by having Strange Supreme appear in those films or by having a similar threat of the universe ending play into their stories.[43]
Doctor Strange writer C. Robert Cargill praised the episode and said it was a career highlight to see a What If...? episode based on a film he had written.[47]
Accolades
Mac Smith, Bill Rudolph, Alyssa Nevarez, Cheryl Nardi, Anele Onyekwere, Tom Kramer, John Roesch and Shelley Roden were nominated for
Notes
- ^ This is when the story diverges from the events of the film Doctor Strange (2016).
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