What If…? showrunner A.C. Bradley shared that she wrote a “very dark” episode involving Marvel‘s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
During an interview with IGN, she shared, “It was funny — Matt (Chauncey) was writing that episode during the early days of the pandemic and he called me at one point. He’s like, ‘It’s darker.’ The first draft was really dark. It almost ended in a tragedy. And then we lightened it up.”
The COVID pandemic influenced the writing of all Season 2 episodes, ultimately resulting in the cancellation of an episode featuring Spider-Man, which was written by Bradley herself.
“It felt like the world was already ending and we didn’t need to add to it. And so [writing Season 2] became kind of an escape and a fun release,” Bradley recalls. “However, I did write an episode, which is forever going in a drawer, that was very, very dark. I was calling it ‘Children of Men with Spider Man.'”
In the dystopian thriller set in 2027, Children of Men (based on the novel by P.D. James), released in 2006, Clive Owen played the role of a former activist hired to escort a young refugee to a scientific research facility amid two decades of human infertility. Bradley remained tight-lipped about her Spider-Man-centric version of this tale.
While Bradley passed on showrunner responsibilities for What If…? Season 3 to Chauncey, she still has one episode, originally slated for Season 2, yet to be broadcast. She might have already caught a glimpse of the anticipated Bucky Barnes/Red Guardian team-up.
“I will say that the Season 3 episode is probably my absolute favorite episode I’ve ever written for Marvel. And not just because it features Alexei, who my cat is named after.”
What If…? Season 2 is streaming on Disney+.
