Marvel Cinematic Universe · What If...?: Season Three

What If... the Emergence Destroyed the Earth? — S03E05

TV · 2024 · 31 minutes · Phase Five · alternate

In a reality where the Eternals failed to stop the Emergence, the birth of the incubating Celestial Tiamut shattered the Earth into a broken, rocky ring-world. Years later, Quentin Beck rules the scattered survivors from the ruins of Stark Industries, having secretly uploaded nanites into his own body to generate illusions that let him pose as humanity's savior and dominate the population's perception of reality. Engineer Riri Williams is recruited into an "Alliance" of allies — Okoye, Valkyrie, Wong, and Ying Nan — who ask her to help topple Beck, but the mission reveals that all four are already dead, and the Alliance itself is nothing more than another nanite-generated illusion Beck has been using to manipulate her. Riri defeats Beck's synthezoid enforcer, a corrupted remnant of Vision, fusing with its salvaged components to become a human-synthezoid hybrid before confronting Beck directly and dismantling the nanite network sustaining his illusions. Watching events unfold, the Watcher abandons his vow of non-interference to actively encourage and assist Riri, an act of open involvement that draws disapproval from three fellow Watchers.