1602-07-15 - What if... ? - Season 2, Episode 8: The Avengers Assembled in 1602?

Apr 7
7 min read

Updated: Jun 3

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In an alternate universe set in the year 1602, Captain Peggy Carter is summoned by that world's Scarlet Witch to help prevent the reality from collapsing in on itself. She arrives to find familiar heroes and villains transplanted into the early 17th century, serving under Queen Hela... until a rift tears open and pulls Hela through it, leaving Carter blamed by Thor and declared a fugitive.

Forced to operate outside the law, Carter enlists the era's Tony Stark to engineer a solution and teams up with a Robin Hood-styled Steve Rogers and his band of outlaws. Using a Time Stone-powered gauntlet built by Stark, she uncovers the source of the collapsing timelines: Rogers himself, who cracked the Time Stone during a battle with Thanos in the present day and was sent back to 1602 without his memories. Restoring the reality comes at a personal cost, requiring Carter to say goodbye to yet another version of Steve Rogers.

What if... ? - Season 2, Episode 8: The Avengers Assembled in 1602?

Universe Designation

This story takes place in the Marvel Continuity: Earth-TRN1093

Characters in the Episode

Character Name	Voice Actor/Status	Role and Description
The Watcher (Uatu)	Jeffrey Wright	The multiversal observer who narrates the divergence and provides the foundational premise.
King Thor Odinson - TRN1093	Chris Hemsworth	Essentially the antagonist of this story. Attempting the capture and execution of Captain Carter
Prince Loki - TRN1093	Tom Hiddleston	The butt of the joke. While, yes, he's a prince in title. This episode uses him as a punching bag.
Wanda Merlin - TRN1093	Elizabeth Olsen	The mastermind behind bringing Captain Carter to save her world. Works with the 'Rebels' to save the day.
Sir Nicholas Fury - TRN1093	Samuel L. Jackson	Capable Master Spy and member of the court. Always one step ahead.
Sir Harold Hogan - TRN1093	Jon Favreau	Thor's enforcer. In pursuit of Captain Carter from the start. Also... somehow a "Hulk" called The Freak.
Captain Carter - 82111	Hayley Atwell	The lynchpin of the episode. She is summoned by Wanda to fix the collapse of this universe. Shenanigans ensue.
Bruce Banner/Hulk - TRN1093	Mark Ruffalo	Found in a cell, attempting a life of solitude and silence, he is forced back into action by Captain Carter.
Scott Lang (Ant Man) - TRN1093	Paul Rudd	Scott is amongst the group of Roger's men. He is proficient with a sword and an asset in getting Stark where he needs to be.
Bucky Barnes - TRN1093	Sebastian Stan	Bucky, also amongst Roger's men, is ready for the fight at hand. One might say that he and Steve are thick as theives
Tony Stark - TRN1093	Mick Wingert	The man the makes the machine to save the universe. Literally.
Steve Rogers - SI001	Josh Keaton	The leader of 'Roger's Hood', a merry gang of thieves! Also, probably more importantly, "The Forerunner".
Doctor Strange Supreme - 91233	Benedict Cumberbatch	Not a large part of this story, but, much like his last appearance, he shows in the final moments of the episode.
Hela Odinsdottir - TRN1093	Cate Blanchett	The catalyst of the episode occurs when Hela is sucked up into the portal caused by Steve.
Black Widow - 82111	Lake Bell	A blink and you'll miss it appearance. In the aftermath of their previous mission, Natasha is the only one to witness Carter's disappearance.
The Red Skull - TRN1093	Non-Speaking	Brutal.. but mostly there for atmosphere and for Marvel fans to point at the screen when he appears.
Thanos - SI001	Non-Speaking	The reason Steve is there to begin with. Another variant of Thanos from an unknown universe invading Wakanda.
The Destroyer Armor - TRN1093	Non-Speaking	Used as Hogan's enforcer, he attacks Carter in an attempt to appease his king.

In-Universe Date

Solidly set in 1602 C.E.

Comic Roots

Neil Gaiman's "Marvel 1602"

The episode "What If... the Avengers Assembled in 1602?" is explicitly inspired by the eight-issue limited series Marvel 1602, published in 2003 and written by Neil Gaiman with art by Andy Kubert. However, the MCU adaptation takes significant creative liberties, shifting the focus from Gaiman's Silver Age characters to the modern Avengers lineup.

The Role of Steve Rogers (Rojhaz vs. Rogers Hood)

In Gaiman's original comic, Steve Rogers is revealed to have fought against a 21st-century dictatorship led by the Purple Man as President-for-Life, was subsequently captured and sent back in time, was taken in by Native Americans who misheard his name, and upon encountering the struggling Roanoke Colony, helped it survive and became Virginia Dare's bodyguard. Wikipedia In the What If...? version, Rogers is a Robin Hood-style outlaw in England, and his displacement is the result of accidentally striking the Time Stone during the Battle of Wakanda. While the "outlaw" status of Rogers Hood evokes the Robin Hood archetype, Gaiman's Rojhaz was a more somber, culturally complex figure whose presence in the past was a calculated act of political exile rather than an accident.

A note on naming: the Purple Man is referred to as "Kilgrave" in the MCU, a name introduced in the Netflix series Jessica Jones. In Gaiman's Marvel 1602 source text, the character is identified only as the Purple Man. The two names refer to the same character across different continuities.

The Exclusion of the Witchbreed and the Fantastic Four

Gaiman's Marvel 1602 was a foundational exploration of how mutants (called "witchbreed") and the Fantastic Four (the "Fantastick") would be perceived in an era dominated by the Spanish Inquisition and the fear of sorcery. This social commentary is largely absent from the animated episode, which prioritizes the "Avengers Assemble" motif. Characters such as Carlos Javier (Xavier), the Inquisitor Enrique (Magneto), and the crew of the Fantastick are adapted out, likely to maintain narrative focus and to avoid introducing teams not yet fully established in the live-action MCU.

The Court Mage: Strange vs. Maximoff

In the comics, Stephen Strange serves as Queen Elizabeth's physician and magician. Wikipedia He is executed by King James following the witchbreed's escape, and his death releases him from the Watcher's oath, allowing his astral form to communicate with his wife Clea and reveal the truth of the temporal anomaly. The What If...? episode replaces Strange in the court mage role with Wanda Merlin. In the comics, Wanda was a nun rather than a court magician. TV Tropes This change allows the series to explore the specific "Guardian of the Multiverse" connection between Wanda and Peggy Carter, while keeping Strange Supreme as a looming figure who appears only in the final moments to drive the overarching season narrative.

The Snark File - Easter Eggs, Callbacks, and Technical Tidbits

Tom Hiddleston and Hamlet

The episode opens with Loki performing the "To be, or not to be" soliloquy while holding a skull at the Globe Theatre. Tom Hiddleston has played Hamlet on stage in real life, making this one of the more pointed pieces of casting awareness in the series.

Loki Is Doing It Wrong

Speaking of Hamlet... There is a subtle error in that Globe Theatre scene that Shakespeare students will clock immediately. In the actual play, the scene where Hamlet holds the skull of Yorick and the "To be, or not to be" soliloquy are two completely separate scenes. Whether this is a production error or a deliberate joke about Loki being a theatrical fraud is left to the viewer.

Cate Blanchett's Role Re-Reprisal

Presumably, Hela occupies the position of Queen Elizabeth I in this reality, and Cate Blanchett has previously played Elizabeth I on screen twice, in Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). The casting resonance is presumably intentional.

"No. No, I Don't Think I Will."

When 1602 Steve Rogers asks Peggy to tell him about her Steve Rogers, she responds with "No. No, I don't think I will." It is the exact phrasing Steve Rogers uses in Avengers: Endgame when Sam Wilson asks him to explain what happened after he went back in time.

The Flux Capacitor

When Peggy starts throwing 21st-century technical vocabulary at Tony Stark, one of the terms she uses is "flux capacitor," the time travel mechanism from Back to the Future. Stark, who has no idea what she is saying but finds it delightful, does not catch the irony of a time traveler casually namedropping the most famous fictional time travel device in cinema history.

Wakandan Sword

Thor's royal sword is called "the All-Father" and is described as a vibranium weapon gifted to him by the King of Wakanda as a coronation present. It is a throwaway line but a meaningful one, establishing that diplomatic relations between Asgard and Wakanda existed in this reality as far back as 1602, and that Wakanda was exporting vibranium as statecraft even then.

The Episode Started Life as a Victorian Pitch

The episode was originally conceived by writer A.C. Bradley as a version of the Avengers set in the Victorian era, which she pitched when auditioning for the What If...? writing staff. When it was moved to Season 2, it shifted to the 1602 setting to align with the Gaiman source material. Additionally, the episode's structure was directly inspired by holodeck episodes of Star Trek, according to the creative team.