What if... The Avengers Assembled in 1602?

"What If... the Avengers Assembled in 1602?" is the eighth episode of the second season of the Disney+ streaming television series, What If...? and the seventeenth episode of the series overall. It aired on December 29, 2023. It was written by A. C. Bradley and Ryan Little and directed by Bryan Andrews.
==Synopsis==
Peggy is graded into the year 1602 to save the Avengers of the past. 
==Plot==
In the year 1602, Prince Loki is performing a production of Hamlet for Queen Hela. Prince Thor dislikes the play and makes fun of Loki's acting, urging his sister that he be allowed to throw produce at Loki. However, before Hela can say more, a rift opens up, causing Loki to begin getting pulled in. Captain Carter, who had been pulled from her own universe by this universe's Wanda, steps in to save Loki, but another rift opens up and sucks Queen Hela in, leaving only her royal scepter. Thor is named King and in his grief, blames Captain Carter, saying the rifts have only got worse since she arrived, and sends his men after Peggy, while he consults the Scarlett Witch on her champion.
As Captain Carter flees her pursuers, The Watcher narrates about the situation, before Peggy speaks up saying she can hear the Watcher (which legit surprises him). The two discuss that this is a universe where the early seventeenth century and early twenty-first century have somehow compressed in on one another. The Watcher offers to take Captain Carter back to her home universe, but she refuses, saying she's not leaving until she's saved this universe. The Watcher expresses doubt she can do so, but Peggy insists.
Meanwhile, King Thor, Sir Nicholas Fury & Sir Harold Hogan consult Wanda Merlin, who explains that the time rifts are being caused by a forerunner, a traveler from the future, and identifying them will be the key to saving their world. Sir Nicholas Fury whispers to a hiding Captain Carter that she has her mission.
The following morning, Captain Carter awakens Blacksmith Tony Stark and presents him with Prince Loki's Yorick skull, which is covered in dust from the rifts. The two deduce that the Forerunner should be giving off the same energy as the rifts, and Tony can build something to trace it, but it requires incredible energy, and the only source of such energy would be the stone on the royal staff. Given King Thor won't be so willing to give the royal staff to them, they need to hire a thief.
Meanwhile, in the forest, Prince Loki's carriage is ambushed and held up by Rogers Hood and his band of men, consisting of both Bucky Barnes and Scott Lang. Captain Carter appears to them, and Rogers is awed, as he had lost his version of Peggy (Maid Margret) sometime ago. In Rogers Hood's treehouse, Rogers bonds with Captain Carter, asking what he was like in her world. Peggy hesitates to say. Rogers is happy to help, however, as his Maid Margret would have wanted him to. They are, however, ambushed by Royal Yellow Jackets, lead by Sir Hogan. As Rogers and his men escape, Captain Carter holds them off, especially when an Asgardian Destroyer is sent in. Captain Carter pleads with Sir Hogan that in her universe, the two are friends, as well as Tony Stark, but Sir Hogan laughs at the notion he would be friends with "Crackpot Stark", and Captain Carter is arrested.
Captain Carter is imprisoned in the Tower of London, where she asks the Watcher if he can use his abilities to identify the forerunner, but he says he cannot. He once again offers to return Captain Carter to her home, doubting she can save the 1602 universe, also questioning whether or not Captain Carter's actions would make the situation better or worse, but she still insists she has to try saving this world. Captain Carter escapes her cell and finds another, a monster in an iron mask, Bruce Banner. Bruce begs her to leave him be, since he enjoys the peace and quiet, but the guards chasing Carter drive up the sound, causing Bruce to transform into the Hulk, who Captain Carter rides to escape the tower.
The following morning, Tony reveals the machine which can not only identify who the forerunner is, but can also send that person back to their proper time. Rogers Hood and his men arrive to join the mission to obtain the scepter. During the royal court, another rift opens up, and as Wanda tries to keep it at bay, the 1602 Avengers try to get the scepter. Rogers initially fences with Sir Hogan, but when he slices Hogan's cap feather, he is enraged and transforms into Freak Hogan, leading to Hulk to step in and take Hogan on. Captain Carter faces King Thor (wielding the All-Father, a Vibranium sword gifted by the King of Wakanda), but as King Thor is about to strike, Wanda stops him and calls on Sir Fury to grab the scepter and give it to Stark.
With the stone in place, the machine activates, and it is revealed that the forerunner is in fact Rogers. He suddenly remembers what happened. While he was facing Thanos, during the events of Avengers: Infinity War, his shield grazed against the Time Stone on the Infinity Gauntlet, causing time to compress. King Thor tells Captain Carter to do the task she was summoned to do.
Captain Carter is reluctant to do so, sad that she is once again being deprived of her happy ending with Steve. Steve assures her that he believes, somewhere out there, they do get one, before he returns to his time period, saving the world and restoring time and reality to normal.
Captain Carter, still trapped in 1602, is seen sitting alone in a tavern, when Strange Supreme appears and tells her he has an interesting story to tell her.
==Cast==
*Jeffrey Wright as The Watcher
*Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter/Captain Carter
*Samuel L. Jackson as Sir Fury
*Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Merlin
*Chris Hemsworth as King Thor Odinson
*Tom Hiddleston as Loki
*Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
*Jon Favreau as Sir Harold "The Happy" Hogan / Happy "The Freak" Hogan
*Mick Wingert as Tony Stark
*Josh Keaton as Steve Rogers/Rogers Hood
*Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man
*Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes
*Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange
*Lake Bell as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (archive audio)
==Trivia==
* This episode is inspired by the "Marvel 1602" comic, written by Neil Gaiman.
** Unlike the comic story, while Steve Rogers is still the reason this timeline came into being, it is instead due to an incident with the Infinity Stones, rather than being sent back in time by the Purple Man.
**Neil Gaiman stated in a tweet that he had once pitched the idea of a live-action 1602 series to Marvel Television, only to be rejected.
**Marvel Studios producer Kevin Feige has expressed interest in making a Marvel 1602 series, but there must be a built-in audience for it.
* This episode follows directly on from What if... Captain Carter Fought The Hydra Stomper?
* During Prince Loki's production of Hamlet, he is giving the "To be, or not to be" speech as he holds the skull of Yorick. In the actual play, Yorick's skull appears much later, during a completely different monologue.
* In the original "Marvel 1602" comic story, Doctor Strange is the court mage, and while a variant of Strange does appear in this episode, he is unconnected to the 1602 events, with Wanda taking the role of the court mage.
* As Tony examines the Time Rift Energy, Captain Carter name drops a Flux Capacitor, the device used to power time travel in the Back to the Future franchise.
* Tony's device activates in a very similar manner to his suitcase armor in Iron Man II.
* Since Happy Hogan is The Freak in this episode, it's possible that this is the same universe from What if... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?, long before Captain America accidentally strikes the Time Stone and warped the timeline from 2018 to 1602.
*This episode shows flashbacks to Avengers: Infinity War and Steve Rogers has the same beard and hair from that film. He also mentions to Peggy that he believes they get their happy ending in one timeline, which is a reference to Avengers: Endgame, when Steve Rogers from 2023 used the Quantum Tunnel to travel back to the 1940s to live a life with Peggy Carter. 
*Rogers Hood is a reference to Robin Hood and he mentions his lover was named Maid Margret, a reference to Robin Hood's main love interest, Maid Marian.
*Rogers Hood asks Captain Carter what the Steve Rogers from her world is like, and she replies with "No, I don't think I will". This is the exact same reply Steve Rogers gave to Sam Wilson in Avengers: Endgame, when Sam asked Steve about an alternate Peggy Carter, whom Steve married in that timeline.
*Thor calls Captain Carter the soldier out of time, which is what Loki called Steve Rogers in the first Avengers film.
==Gallery==
 What If...? - 2x08 - What if... The Avengers Assembled in 1602? - Wanda Merlin.jpg
What If.... 2x08 - What If The Avengers Assembled in 1602 - Rogers Hood & Captain Carter.png
What If.. 2x08 - What if.. The Avengers Assembled in 1602 - Hulk Hogan.png
What If... -2x08 - What If... The Avengers Assembled in 1602 - Thanos vs Captain America.png
What If... - 2x08 - What If... The Avengers Assembled in 1602 - Tony Stark.png
Category:What If...? episodes