WARNING: The following contains minor spoilers for What If...? episode 4, now streaming on Disney+.
The Watcher himself, Jeffrey Wright, teased that his character can only sit by and observe for so long on What If...? before he'll decide to intervene.
The latest episode of What If...? sees The Watcher finally talk to one of the characters on the show, as Doctor Strange Supreme detects the being's presence and calls out to him for help. For Wright, the episode was a powerful one and may tease an upcoming breaking point for the multiversal observer.
"In this instance, it speaks to Strange's mystical powers too, that he perceives him there. So there's two sides to that, but also yes, The Watcher is compelled by the danger that Strange is conjuring, obviously not only for himself but for his whole reality," Wright said "For The Watcher, there's only so much he can only watch. He's not a voyeur for voyeurism's sake, he is in some ways made up of these characters. Without them, what does he watch? [Laughs] He's profoundly compelled by them, and maybe there's only so much he can take. We'll see."
"It's a shift in attitude for him, and it's a shift in purpose and intent and all of that stuff for him," Wright continued. "That's a fun gearshift to play. And he also becomes less disembodied. For audiences too, that's the moment in which he steps into these worlds a little bit closer and steps a little closer to the audience as well. That's his moment where he knocks on the door."
The actor also spoke about how impacted he was by the fourth episode of the animated series, saying he was "rocked" when he first saw it.
"I think this idea of his universe being destroyed is a wonderful metaphor too for all of us when we attempt the impossible or rather when we try to reject our path, our destiny, or the inevitability of our lives. When a schism grows between our reality and our relationship to it, we do in fact kind of destroy our universe, you know? It unravels completely and we lose touch with our wisdom and we lose touch with a healthy relationship to our lives, and that in and of itself is the destruction of the universe, right? I really enjoyed the metaphor of that idea, and I don't want to give too much away about what comes after... The nature of this series is about exploring possibilities, and what I think is true of the MCU is that all of these threads can potentially weave themselves into the other."
New episodes of What If...? arrive Wednesdays on Disney+.
Source: Entertainment Weekly