MCU Brings Back Tony Stark's Iron Man Fling (With A New Career)

Warning: SPOILERS for Marvel's What If...? episode 4, "What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands?"

Marvel's What If...? episode 4 brought back Christine Everhart (Leslie Bibb), who hasn't been seen since the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 3 and hasn't made a movie appearance since 2010's Iron Man 2. In "What If...? Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands?", an alternate universe the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), went mad with power trying to reverse the death of his love, Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams). Strange ended up collapsing his own reality in his futile quest to resurrect Christine.

In Iron Man, Christine Everhart was one of Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) flings. A writer for Vanity Fair, Everhart approached Stark for a profile on the billionaire playboy, which resulted in a one-night stand where Christine awoke in Tony's cliffside mansion in Malibu, to the chagrin of Stark's assistant (and future wife), Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). At a Stark Industries benefit, Everhart later proved to Tony that his company was still selling weapons to terrorists before she attended the press conference where Stark announced to the world that he is Iron Man. Everhart returned in Iron Man 2 and saw Stark again in Monaco when she was pursuing another Vanity Fair profile, this time on Tony's would-be rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell).

Christine Everhart makes a very brief appearance in What If...? episode 4 in her new capacity as a news anchor for WHiH Newsfront. In the alternate timeline of "What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands," Everhart is seen on television in a bar where she reports on the death of Dr. Christine Palmer. Christine perished when her apartment building caught fire, which is one of the countless ways Dr. Palmer died that Stephen Strange was unable to prevent. It's such a fleeting cameo that it's surprising that Marvel Studios brought Leslie Bibb back to voice Christine Everhart, especially considering how MCU actors like Robert Downey Jr., Brie Larson, and Chris Evans don't voice Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and Captain America in What If...?

Christine Everhart's career change from Vanity Fair journalist to WHiH news anchor is canonical in the MCU, especially after What If...? However, Christine's appearance in "What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead Of His Hands" is primarily set in MCU Phase 3 and it's not clear what became of Everhart afterward and whether she was among the billions who was killed by The Blip caused by Thanos (Josh Brolin) and the Infinity Gauntlet. Fans also don't know how Christine Everhart feels about Tony Stark's death in Avengers: Endgame.

After her last MCU movie appearance in Iron Man 2, Leslie Bibb reprised Christine Everhart in live-action as part of the Marvel Studios web series WHiH Newsfront, which streamed for two "seasons." The first season of WHiH Newsfront was part of Ant-Man's viral marketing campaign in 2015, and Leslie Bibb's character set up the final film of MCU Phase 2 by interviewing Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) after he was released from prison and Pym Technologies CEO Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) before he became Yellowjacket. WHiH Newsfront season 2 was a prelude to Captain America: Civil War and Christine Everhart interviewed President Matthew Ellis (William Sadler) to lay the groundwork for the legal necessity of the Sokovia Accords in the aftermath of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Bibb continues her busy career outside of the MCU and she returned to the superhero genre as one of the stars of Netflix's Jupiter's Legacy. But Leslie Bibb obviously maintains her ties to the MCU so it's quite possible Christine Everhart will return in MCU Phase 4, either in a future episode of Marvel's What If...? or possibly even in live-action.

Next: The MCU Changed How Its Alternate Timelines Work (Again)

Marvel's What If...? streams Wednesdays on Disney+.