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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...

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Which Secret Wars comic the Russos are basing Avengers 6 off of
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Marvel's accidental closure on the Kang storyline
• Robert Downey Jr. is entering his villain era
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• For Marvel actors, the MCU also stands for the Marvel Commercials Universe
• The Fantastic 4: First Steps offers Marvel a visual makeover, courtesy of a classic movie designer
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga