S03.E02: What If...Agatha went to Hollywood?

[AnimeMania]

Howard Stark may have helped the Allies win World War II...but what he really wants to do is direct! On the set of Stark Pictures’ first production, the playboy auteur quickly finds himself enchanted by his bewitching lead actress, Agatha Harkness. Little does she know there will be another superpower co-star on the call sheet...Kingo.

Premiere Date: December 23, 2024   Disney+ 

Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness  
Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo 
Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark 
James D’Arcy as Jarvis 

[thuganomics85]

Definitely a lighter episode compared to the premiere with all of the Hollywood jokes, Howard being Howard, poor suffering Jarvis, and, of course, Agatha Harkness and Kingo squaring off in an extravagant dance number!  Just another average day in What If?!

Actually surprised Agatha came back around at the end after Kingo's pep talk: thought she was going to remain The Cosmic Queen and go on a rampage.  I'm guessing Cosmic Queen Agatha will play a part in whatever final showdown/endgame happens this season.

James D'Arcy continues to be one of the MCU's best and underrated casting choices as Jarvis.  Still miss the Agent Carter series.

[arc]

It's already straining my suspension of disbelief just to think 1940s (???) era Hollywood would borrow from Bollywood, but this dance-off between Kingo and Agatha simply could not have happened as presented. Kingo and his dancers are standing exactly where the camera would have to be to capture Agatha and her dancers, and vice-versa. Obviously if you wanted to film this in a movie musical you could, but you'd have to do it in parts and edit it together. I do appreciate the dance choreography though. Sorry for the pedantry.

Also, Howard sure is talking a lot during filming. I know directors did that in the silent movie era, but during talkies? Did movie musicals do extensive ADR? I don't actually know movie making history that well.

Whew, at least it turned out Howard Stark did know his stars were superhuman.

LMAO Arishem got popped in the face! Feels pretty beneath a Celestial to just get clocked. Actually, I'm not really a fan of Celestials talking as if they were normal people. I liked it in that one Thor comic where the Celestials created a clone of Thor to speak to him because the Celestials were on such a higher plane that there's no direct communication possible.

[BaggythePanther]

2 hours ago, arc said:

It's already straining my suspension of disbelief just to think 1940s (???) era Hollywood would borrow from Bollywood

This bothered me too, but then I just figured that in this timeline collaborations between Hollywood and Bollywood must not be uncommon.

I liked this better than the first episode. The episode already had a head start because I’m more fond of the characters featured in this episode. Also, it seemed like the story was trying to stand on its own rather than work in a bunch of callbacks to the movies.

I think Agatha giving up her plan for world domination happened a little too quickly. But since there’s a cliffhanger that might come around again.