Season 1 / Episode 7: What If... Thor was an only child?

[Pennywise]

 

[HammerDown]

Loved the nod to Mark Mothersbaugh synth score from Ragnarok.

 

[Pennywise]

Seth Green on How His Howard the Duck Voice Has Evolved Since 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' and Teases This Week's 'What If...?'

 

[DarkKnight88]

I read that too fast as What If Thor Was a Child! Then saw the image and thought we were in for some Big-style fun.

 

[HammerDown]

Meet 'Party Thor' in Marvel's 'What If...?' episode 7 first look

EW has your exclusive first look at this week's episode 7 "What If ... Thor Was an Only Child?" that head writer AC Bradley tells EW is "fun and silly" — no world-ending events or murdered Avengers in sight. "I love the Thor-Jane relationship and we wanted to play around with that part of the love story without the framework of tragedy," Bradley says. "The story took root from a love of '80s and '90s rom-coms and party films. After so many serious episodes, what's the most fun we could possibly have? And the answer to that is: Let Thor throw a party."

Director Bryan Andrews laughs as he admits that "some of the stuff has already been a little bit leaked because of merchandising, there's like shirts that say 'Party Thor!' so it lets you know a certain degree of the attitude behind this episode." But he's excited for fans to see the "complete 180 from the couple episodes that came before that were more serious, more dramatic, tragedy and shock. It's going to be a really great palate cleanser from the stuff that came before and it will set you up for the stuff that will come after."

The episode's "What If...?" question explores how Thor (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) would be different if he was never raised with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) as his brother. "Anyone who has siblings knows that that relationship affects us greatly growing up," Bradley says. "So in the MCU, Thor grew up with Loki, literally the god of mischief, always running into trouble so Thor became the good prince, the good son. Without his brother dragging him into trouble Thor had to find it on his own and so he grew up a bit differently — still our lovable hero, but his interests are less about becoming king of Asgard, and more about becoming perhaps the party prince."

Andrews explains that this comedic and light version of Thor is extremely different from what fans have seen in Thor: Ragnarok and even post-Blip in Avengers: Endgame. "We get to reinvent him because his entire life from the beginning to this point is totally different so we got to create a brand new version of Thor, truly," he says. "We push that comedy. It does take place in the timeframe roughly of what we think of as Thor so there are some other characters that we do get to see from that movie — Jane Foster makes an appearance as well as Darcy and Natalie Portman and Kat Dennings did such a fantastic job."

Bradley also reveals that "this episode is chock full of cameos" because it was recorded later in the process of making season 1 after many of the MCU actors experienced earlier What If...? episodes and had fun with it. "A lot of the lines are improvised by the actors," she adds. "It should be Easter egg heaven. I hope people have fun with the one this week because it's not as bombastic world-ending as other episodes. The mandate for me when I was writing it was, I just want to have fun, I just want to be silly. It's a lot sillier than anything you'd see in the MCU. It should be an episode to watch with a beer."

That's the atmosphere that Hemsworth brought into the recording booth with him for this episode. "He ate it up," Andrews says. "We started finding the voice and Chris has got such natural comic instincts — they've started bringing that out in Ragnarok but we got to lean into that even more so in this. There's some stuff that got particularly goofy and he was laughing and the guys in the recording booth over there in Australia were laughing, and he was just like, 'I really like this Thor!' He gets to cut loose more than he ever has in the Marvel Universe."

Andrews laughs before adding, "I get a sense that maybe there's a little bit of actual Chris in 'Party Thor' which might be one reason why he gravitated towards it so easily and had so much fun with it."

And Bradley even had her own comedic moment when this episode was being recorded — but not because of anything that happens in the episode. "Seth Green[makes a] cameo and he came in to record as Howard the Duck," she says. "I was walking him through the episode like, 'It's really fun and zany and it's kind of like a throwback to Can't Hardly Wait.' And the man very politely nodded and went, 'Yeah, I've seen it.' And it wasn't until the drive home that I was like, 'Oh frick, he was in it! I just pitched him his own movie.'"

 

[HammerDown]

I absolutely loved this episode.
What a delightful little gem of pure joy. I laughed out loud and had a big smile in my face throughout.

Where to begin, firstly we finally got some well deserved levity sprinkled in the series, things were so dar and bleak but this really lifted the spirits. The episode was a blast, with so many nods, easter eggs, cameos… in fact this episode was basically what I kind of envisioned this whole “What If” concept to be.

Of course the biggest standout was this version of Thor and how Chris Hemsworth fired on all cylinders to delivers such an enjoyable and memorable take on the character, he was having the time of his life doing this and it showed. I actually thought everyone did a really good job, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston and Goldblum did great with what he had, even Kat Dennings…

So much to take in and appreciate. So this episode is a direct continuation of episode 3 and the ending basically sets everything moving forward. That was a pretty f’d up ending though, everything was nice and good, even the Watcher was genuinely happy but thing still ended in a sour note. I see the series and the pieces of the puzzle coming together and I think we’re in for a treat.

 

[Hannibal75]

This episode was hilarious. I loved the fact that every alien species in the MCU came to earth for Thor's party, Loki as a Frost Giant, Darcy and Howard being a couple, and of course the bonkers cliffhanger.

Also, we might have gotten blue balls with the Hulk-Wanda fight but we were rewarded this time with the glorious Thor-Carol brawl all over the planet. Let's hope we see something similar in a future movie.

 

[BlackFox]

Great episode, everyone was great in this and just having fun with it, loved the fight around the world with Thor v Carole, Darcy and Howard the Duck.

 

[Cappe1990]

Great...

 

[Prison Mike]

This episode was 99% filler up until the last 5 seconds. For the most part, I just wasn’t feeling it. I was glad to see most of the actors came back to voice their characters though. This show has been pretty uneven, IMO. Each episode is a hit or a miss for me.

 

[HammerDown]

I feel like this episode was very much a welcome and refreshing palate cleanser after all the previous downer endings.

The levity was contagious. The score was 100% Ragnarok synthwave and it really bought even more life to the episode. Some of the jokes had me in stitches. There was romance which I actually enjoyed, the action with Thor vs Captain Marvel was pretty awesome and the adventure of discovering new interpretations of characters and what they where up too kept me invested.

The only drawback for me was there wasn’t really any palpable dramatic tension or real emotional weight/stakes. But I guess it’s part of the course with the nature of this episode. Had it delivered on that front as well and it would’ve been a 10/10 for me. Having said that I’m still very pleased with what we got.

I even think they managed to bring back Jane Foster successfully into the fold and slowly but steadily bring Captain Marvel to a better light. Also while Jane Foster has been involved with Thor, there seems to be seeds of something more with CM as well.

 

[P Supreme]

This was the episode ive been waiting for and well it was forgettable aside from Frost Giant Loki looked great, thor playfully owning captain marvel and the ending i enjoyed, everything else was pointless. They managed to keep me invested for the ultron showdown. Another meh episode

 

[Zyraquis]

This is a pretty uneventful episode dragging on for too long. Thought he lied about or was not aware him causing destruction of another planet and there were some grave consequences but I thought wrong. That planet thing amounted to nothing like everything else. Unfortunately it is the weakest in the series for me despite star studded cameos.

 

[First Avenger]

I think this is the best episode next to The Strange and T'challa ones. Definately the most bonkers, loved the Thor-Captain Marvel rivalry, Frost Loki and Howard were hilarious too! And this is the only episode which has a clear 'to be continued' feel to it, as I believe the cligfhanger will lead directly to the finale which I think will be a two-parter.

 

[Detective Conan]

This episode was the very definition of forgettable pablum. Not bad, but not especially good either. Definitely a breather episode after the seriousness of the last few episodes, but I like that they used up a comedy episode to set up a super-serious one that comes after.

 

[Drizzle]

Well this was definitely the most fun episode so far. The stakes weren't very high apart from the cliffhanger ending but the jokes landed for the most part. I got a huge kick out of Frost Giant Loki and other gags like DJ Grandmaster and Surtur with the Statue of Liberty.

The voice acting was pretty on point all around, and Natalie Portman seemed to be having fun with it, which makes me all the more excited for Love and Thunder.

It was also cool that in the middle of all the debauchery we got a Thor vs. Captain Marvel fight that was very similar to Thor taking on Iron Man and Hulk in the first Avengers movie. I particularly enjoyed that since we may never see it happen in the films.

 

[samsnee]

Worst episode of the season. The whole thing was stupid.

 

[Drizzle]

So this episode is a direct continuation of episode 3 and the ending basically sets everything moving forward.

You mean the Ultron at the end was from the same universe as Episode 3?

 

[HammerDown]

You mean the Ultron at the end was from the same universe as Episode 3?

No. I thought it was the same universe as episode 3 but it doesn’t work because of the different Loki’s… My bad.

Ultron Prime is coming from a totally different universe. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the one from King Killmonger (episode 6). Where Vision took over after Iron Man’s death and without anyone to oversee him.

 

[Drizzle]

No. I thought it was the same universe as episode 3 but it doesn’t work because of the different Loki’s… My bad.

Ultron Prime is coming from a totally different universe. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the one from King Killmonger (episode 6). Where Vision took over after Iron Man’s death and without anyone to oversee him.

Also the Thor from Episode 3 is dead.

 

[Venom 1988]

No. I thought it was the same universe as episode 3 but it doesn’t work because of the different Loki’s… My bad.

That and Thor died in that episode lol.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Alright, Party Thor episode was super charming. Either it is my favorite so far or 2nd favorite. Super stupid, but oh so entertaining

 

[Frodo]

I thought it was hysterical and much more entertaining than the Killmonger episode last week.

Yeah, it's dumb filler, and not earth shattering , but in this case, I was fine with that.

It entertained me and I liked it more than the last two episodes.

They basically got the whole cast of Thor back which was awesome.

Strange Supreme is still the best one imo, but I did have fun with this one.

 

[javonstokess]

Man, some of you guys have forgotten that it's okay to have "Fun" stories...

 

[Spider-Fan]

Fun is absolutely welcome, lol. I find Thor in the MCU has worked best when they have leaned into him being funny, and this dials that buffoon Thor up to 11, lol