When Marvel’s What If…? premieres on August 11 on Disney+, it will be a brand-new experience for MCU fans. The animated series will feature fan-favorite characters voiced by some of their beloved live-action stars. Furthermore, the pieces of the multiverse reflected in the first season will be a peek into the chaos going on outside of the films and reinterpret the meaning of “canon.”

Executive Producer Brad Winderbaum spoke to Screen Rant about the process that led to the animation style, the stories they chose to focus on, and how important characters old and new fit into the tapestry of the multiverse.

Screen Rant: How did you guys come up with the look of the animation?

Brad Winderbaum: Like everything in this show, we were completely unbound from any kind of reality that came before us. We went in not trying to emulate it. Bryan [Andrews, the director] was bringing in references from the early 20th century and mid-century stuff. J. C. Leyendecker was an artist that we were focusing on.

Ryan Meinerding - who has always had a passion for animation, despite the fact that he's one of the best live-action illustrators that ever lived - really helped us find that look that felt iconic and played in a 2D space but still was detail rich. Our production designer created these painterly background textures that hearkened back to that era of illustration.

And Bryan really was thinking about lenses. Even though we're doing a 2D look, creating a rich atmosphere for light to bloom into and to bend around these 2D forms. And I think we ended up with something that stands apart. I'm not sure there's something you can point to and be like, "Oh, they're doing that." We're doing us.

Talk to me about brainstorming this show. How did you decide on what the moments of divergence would be?

Brad Winderbaum: Early on in the concept phase, when A.C. [Bradley, the head writer] and Bryan and I were tacking things to a wall, we realized quickly that the question "what if" is just the beginning. The more important question is, "Then what?" It's the "then what" that really tells you whether or not you have a story worth telling.

That helped us decide which concepts caught fire. That What If...? inciting incident, that branched timeline, would be a story that would challenge these characters and really give us a historic experience.

It's an anthology, but it really has the vibe of The Twilight Zone, with Rod Serling opening the show up. For the first three episodes, we haven't seen The Watcher act or get involved in some of these What If...? stories. How will we see the character evolve over the season?

Brad Winderbaum: Something that Jeffrey [Wright] talked about a lot when he first came on board was the heart of the character. He's larger than life: his scale is unfathomably huge, his power is unfathomably huge. But, in there, there's a human heart.

Even in those first few episodes, where he really is the Rod Serling type narrator, there's just something in Jeffrey's voice and his performance where you know that there's more than. This is a guy who's lived. You cannot get, in terms of scope, a grander character - but he's a human. There's a little life there. Without going into great detail and spoiling things, it is something that we explore.

Were there any Marvel mandates as far as what stories you needed to tackle, or was it really an open world of creativity and freedom that you had to play with?

Brad Winderbaum: It was [an] open world of creativity and freedom that we could play with, but there were rules. The biggest one being that we wanted to make stories that were based on films people had seen. We didn't want to make an episode for a character that hadn't appeared on screen, even if it was a character we [know].

We wanted to, first and foremost, be able to riff on a film that people were aware of and would be excited to revisit. The other side of is that, admittedly - and a lot of What If...? comic book readers would admit this - sometimes I would pick up a What If...? story without having any knowledge of the story that it was based on. And many times it was a gateway to those stories.

I think that there are going to be situations where people watch an episode, like the Captain Carter episode, and then are drawn in to watch that movie for the first time.

T'Challa As A Ravager In Marvel's What If

Were there any ideas you guys had that you were really attached to but didn't quite make it for whatever reason?

Brad Winderbaum: Oh, yeah. So many. I can't [share them], because they might appear in the second season or third season. But we could never tell as many stories as we wanted to. You can't do it anyway, even in live-action - even as part of the Sacred Timeline, you can't do it. You add the What If...? element of infinity in the multiverse, and there [are] so many great ideas.

How has What If...? changed the way that you look at Marvel films going forward?

Brad Winderbaum: Well, it's funny. I definitely look at all of the MCU as one giant What If...? It's an interpretation. It's a universe that runs parallel to the comic books.

Early on, I think that was a way we thought about it. The Ultimates were a big touchstone for us, and it was because it was a fully realized universe that ran a parallel path with the main comic book universe. As we entered into a shared narrative with the MCU, I think it was creatively healthy to think about it as its own parallel world. It didn't have to be a one-to-one adaptation of exactly what happened in the comics. It lives and breathes on its own terms. And in that way, we've always been telling What If...? stories.

What was your experience working with Chadwick Boseman on this project?

Brad Winderbaum: Yeah, it was incredible. Even not knowing what we know, I think he approached every performance like this. He dug in; he was so excited about building a fully realized T'Challa out of this new set of circumstances. He's the type of guy that just leaves it on the field anyway.

And the privilege was having him do that for these animated performances, because you know he's in multiple episodes. He plays actually multiple versions of T'Challa in the season. And each one was a real exploration - a deep exploration - of the character. And now knowing what we know, it's just so humbling that he took the time to work with us.

What are you most looking forward to people seeing, out of everything you created here?

Brad Winderbaum: If it does nothing else, I just want it to be a fun ride through the multiverse. The whole concept of the multiverse could be a real heady idea. But I think when you watch these episodes of What If...? you realize these are just new opportunities to tell fun stories. To tell deep stories, emotional stories - hopefully at times. That's just a new playground to play in.

Next: Theory: MCU's Multiverse Will Be Invaded By Ultron In Phase 4

Marvel's What If...? premieres August 11 on Disney+.