What If... Iron Man Crashed Into the Grandmaster?

What If...? Season 2, Episode 4 transports viewers to the chaotic and colorful world of Sakaar, reimagining Tony Stark's journey in a highly entertaining alternate reality. Instead of landing on Titan during Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Tony finds himself stranded on Sakaar, where his ingenuity is put to the test. Partnering with the Grandmaster, Stark builds a Sakaaran-inspired suit of armor to survive gladiatorial combat and the planet's unpredictable challenges.

Jeff Goldblum's return as the Grandmaster steals the spotlight, injecting his trademark charm and eccentricity into the episode. Korg, often relegated to a side role, enjoys a much more prominent presence here, providing both comedic relief and heartfelt camaraderie with Stark. The visuals echo the vibrant aesthetic of Thor: Ragnarok (2017), immersing viewers in Sakaar's unique atmosphere while delivering thrilling action sequences.

The episode balances humor and drama effectively, highlighting Tony's resilience and adaptability in a world far removed from Earth. However, the story occasionally leans too heavily on spectacle over substance, leaving some emotional beats underdeveloped. Despite this, What If...? (2021) Continues to excel in exploring uncharted territories within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and this Sakaar-centric adventure is no exception.

I really enjoyed this episode! Best one of the season! The what if actually felt like a what if that could have played out. With episode 1, Thanos dying, then Ronan coming to Xandar, and this random shield closed before Ronan could enter was all far fetched. Episode 2, all made sense, until Ego got beat so quickly by Peter and with the child saying Ego got into his head after exploding tons of planets, fully aware of it. Why couldn't Ego be in Quill's head while he was killing him? Episode 3, well come on, that Avengers tower heist didn't feel like a threat. I'll give it a pass because it was a Christmas episode.

But E4 made sense and felt natural. What if...? Tony didn't make it through the portal in time. Makes perfect sense. They also didn't go through a montage of paintings to show us it, they literally animated the What if that occurred. Small difference, but worth it.

Also Tony was insanely well written! Like what!? The writers defiantly love and understand these characters. Unlike other characters, Tony was pushed aside last season, and was present in 4 episode, because, well he's Iron Man. But here you get more to the character, it adds on. Like the doctor strange episode and the Ultron episode, Tony got extremely good character development! Gamora was good. Like okay. Again my biggest complaint, add more time to the episode. I'd sacrifice the 20 minute Christmas episode to add more time to some of these episodes. Because they could really use it. Jeff Goldblum was fantastic in this! I just love the character interactions, this is what made me fall in love with season 1, and what they continue to do in season 2, just this episode really shows!

JUST PLEASE, for season 3 add more space to breathe! For example we could've used a fight for Thanos at the end! That would have been awesome! Tony and Gamora fight against him. That would have been perfect.

It really was pretty solid, all things considered. We get a good bit of backstory for the alternate Gamora we met last season, we get a bit more of Jeff Goldblum being Jeff Goldblum which is always fun (and, thankfully, he doesn't stray too far into "Jeff Goldblum as a meme of Jeff Goldblum" territory), we get a little bit more Topaz (which I'm always down for, I do love me some Rachel House), and we even get a bit of Mad Max meets Death Race. They also manage to contain Taika and his quips pretty well so that's another plus.

There's really not a lot of story here, though, but that's not a bad thing because they don't try to cram a movie into 25-ish minutes, and they do manage to build out this Gamora's backstory a bit...plus, it might be a bit of a stretch, or wishful thinking, but I THINK we might have also got a little bit of an X-Men tease.

This episode uses an actual "What If..." scenario. Tony saves New York in the Avengers movie, but what if he didn't make it before the worm hole closes.

I've seen a a few episodes with cringe-worthy humor, but here it's not too bad.

I like all the nick names Tony gives everyone and this episode captures how the Grandmaster is in the comics.

The Grandmaster in the comics is a gambler and LOVES to play games, but is known for cheating in order to win.

You should read "Thanos Quest" where he battles Thanos in a VR game for the infinity stones and THIS Grandmaster is reflective of that character. It seemed natural he would accept Tony's challenge because that's his nature, but of course he's going to stack the deck in his favor.

So far this is my favorite of Season 2.

The real fun in these episodes lies in the ways that these stories and characters can interact and how fun it would be to see "that" character with "this" character. A story that involves Tony Stark on Sakaar having to participate in the Grandmaster's ludicrous games is not something that would have immediately come to my mind, but it is a fun idea when thinking about it. And it became one of the few episodes that was written for season one but didn't get it's turn until season two, and in hindsight, it does add a bit of character development and properly sets up Gamora.

Gamora's presence in the first season was a bit of an anomaly and she was the only member of the team assembled that didn't really feel like she belonged. Having this episode would have certainly changed that. Has her placement here changed anything? That's not really known yet, but it does feel like the episode is mostly there to set up something that we have already seen and feels a bit superfluous this time around. However, the basic premise of the episode is a lot of fun, and it was an unexpected joy to see Tony Stark interact with these supporting characters from "Thor: Ragnarok," as well as with Gamora, although it was a missed opportunity to not go deeper into the similarities between the two. Also, Mick Wingert is doing an absolutely phenomenal job as Tony Stark, making it feel like Robert Downey Jr. Never went away as he completely captures the mannerisms and the charisma that he brought to the role. Those are not easy shoes to fill, but Wingert does with a glimmer in the eye and a great hold on Downey's speech pattern. The other guest stars were fun enough, but Cynthia McWilliams as Gamora couldn't help but feel a little too stoic in this role. It didn't feel like the Gamora character that we have come to know and love, which is fine given that this is a different interpretation for a different variant of her, but there's a gap there that is desired, even though she still does good work.

"What If... Iron Man Crashed into the Grandmaster" is a solid episode that pairs up Tony Stark with some very fun supporting characters in the MCU. Mick Wingert shines as Stark in this episode, while the other guest stars also do a good job, although McWilliams' portrayal and the overall characterization of Gamora leaves a bit to be desired.