"What If...? Iron Man Crashed into the Grandmaster?" is the fourth episode of season two of What If...?.
Tony Stark challenges The Grandmaster, leading to a grand prix-turned-demolition-derby death match.
Plot[]
The Watcher recalled the fight of the Guardians of the Multiverse to save all of existence from destruction. However, the Watcher acknowledged that the story of Gamora had yet to be told, stating that from the daughter of a Mad Titan to the champion of a multiversal war, Gamora's path to becoming the hero of her story began in someone else's.
At the conclusion of the Battle of New York, Tony Stark flew a nuclear missile through the wormhole generated by the Tesseract, destroying the Chitauri Command Center and saving the Earth. However, the wormhole closed before Tony could pass through it back to Earth, sending Tony hurtling across space, eventually crashing on Sakaar. Tony was greeted by the Grandmaster who creeped Tony out with his greeting before Tony's damaged armor caught fire, causing Topaz to have him doused in foam.
The Grandmaster welcomed Tony to Sakaar, alarming Tony to find out that he'd been lost in space. The Grandmaster excitedly recognized Tony as "Mr. Metal Mojo Man" from Earth - ignoring all of Tony's attempts to tell him that it was actually Iron Man - who had defeated the Chitauri army. Explaining that time worked differently on Sakaar, meaning that days had passed since the Battle of New York, the Grandmaster showed Tony news coverage of the battle. Much to Tony's relief, the news footage revealed that the Avengers had won, and he even spotted an unharmed Pepper Potts amongst the crowd in the footage, albeit looking devastated by Tony's presumed death. Tony asked the Grandmaster for help with returning to Earth, but he refused, asking Tony to stay for his birthday party and having Topaz melt a statue with her staff as a demonstration that the Grandmaster wasn't giving him a choice.
Tony attended the Sakaar Grand Prix which had Korg and Valkyrie amongst the drivers, finding the alcohol to be disgusting. While Tony saw it as an intergalactic NASCAR race, the Grandmaster compared it more to an ancient chariot race. Much to Tony's shock and horror, the race quickly turned destructive and deadly with racers outright attacking and killing each other, although Valkyrie was able to skillfully avoid multiple attacks before crashing and having the crowd throw tin cans and hamsters at her on the Grandmaster's orders. The Grandmaster aster explained that they had used to throw rotten food, but the recent famines making people starving made that practice uncouth. As Valkyrie stole a spectator's drink and enjoyed the rest of the show, the Grandmaster had his champion Snuffy released, a giant furry, horned beast that attacked the racers. As Snuffy targeted Korg, Tony summoned his armor to rescue Korg, but the damaged and sticky armor only partially covered Tony and malfunctioned, causing Tony to quickly lose flight and be unable to fire his repulsors at the creature.
Gamora suddenly appeared, blasting Snuffy apart and opening fire on Tony and Korg. Tony managed to destroy Gamora's gun with his repulsors before they malfunctioned once again. Gamora was only able to tell Tony that she was his death before they were subdued by Topaz with the Grandmaster's slave chips. Tony and Gamora were then locked in a cell with Korg where Tony was able to use an energy sure from his Arc Reactor to fry the chip. Gamora introduced herself as the daughter of Thanos, the Mad Titan who was burdened to bring balance to the universe. Not wanting to hang around "to play Dr. Moreau's Hunger Games," Tony managed to use his bracelet to override the lock on the door and he escaped with Korge, leaving Gamora locked in the cell, but she discovered that the glass window cracked under Gamora's blows.
Korg admitted that the Grandmaster was spending all of Sakaar's money on death and he took out the guards in the hanger, ignoring Tony's orders to wait for his signal because he thought that Tony's blinking and twitching goatee were a signal. Having managed to escape as well, Gamora resumed her attack using a guard's gun, blowing up a ship and the hanger doors. Grabbing a guard's control device, Tony was able to use the chip that was still on Gamora's neck to subdue her. An alarm went off while the Grandmaster appeared as a hologram, ordering his people to track down Tony and mentioning both the famine and a lake turning to blood. Gamora accused Tony and humanity of being weak, declaring that Thanos would have his revenge. Gamora explained that the Chitauri had belonged to Thanos, surprising Tony as he'd believed it to be solely the work of Loki, and Gamora declared that his victory was glorious, but it would be short. Tony furiously retorted that it wasn't a glorious victory, people had died, including a friend of his, and demanded to know if she had ever watched her home world get destroyed, brought to its knees by a madman and if Gamora had watched as the Chitauri had tried to break humanity. Gamora was unmoved, but before Tony could shock her unconscious again, the Grandmaster's hologram declared Tony to be a very, very nasty man rather than a hero. After confirming with Korg that the Grandmaster was as bad as he seemed, Tony relented, telling Gamora that he was going to piss her off and save this planet too before going after Thanos.
Tony and Korg made their escape in one of the Grandmaster's ships as Gamora was recaptured by Topaz and several guards. Tony confirmed that he really intended to save the Sakaarans because he was Iron Man, and it was what he did. Needing a driver, Tony and Korg approached Valkyrie at a bar for help with Tony noting that Valkyrie had joined a death race despite not being a fool or a bad driver. Korg revealed that all of the previous winners had been taken to a farm and killed, although Korg remained oblivious to the fact that what he was actually describing wasn't a good thing. Speaking from personal experience, Tony guessed that Valkyrie actually wanted the thrill and to feel alive if only for a moment so that she could forget whatever mistake had Valkyrie drinking so much. Tony revealed to an amused Valkyrie that he and Korg intended to take down the Grandmaster by beating him at his own game and she agreed to join them, although Tony passed out after trying a shot of the Demon Rum.
After Topaz opened her cell, Gamora attacked, destroyed Topaz's control device and disarmed her, using Topaz's staff to melt her four guards. A disgusted Gamora then captured Topaz. At the same time, with the help of Valkyrie and Korg, Tony assembled a new suit of armor to defeat the Grandmaster. Having learned that Gamora was after Tony for Thanos, Valkyrie urged him to run, but Tony told her about campground rules: always leave a place better than you found it.
Gamora confronted the Grandmaster and demanded Tony Stark. Having hacked the Grandmaster's communications, Tony made a holographic broadcast, declaring that while he could take down this planet, the Sakaarans had seen enough insanity. Instead, Tony challenged the Grandmaster to a race with the planet as the prize. Gamora warned the Grandmaster that it was a trap as Tony was a genius on his world, but the Grandmaster arrogantly dismissed the danger and made a deal with Tony where the Grandmaster would get Tony's new armor if he won. As the crowd cheered for Tony, the Grandmaster shocked Gamora unconscious and declared that she would be racing too.
At the race, Korg and Valkyrie decided to share a chariot, Gamora was forced into one of her own and was provided with a comms device by Tony, Topaz attached her staff to hers and the Grandmaster provided Tony with one that resembled an ancient chariot more than a race car. The Grandmaster gave himself a head start before the race had officially begun with chaos quickly erupting as a massive chariot opened fire on the racers. However, Korg quickly destroyed the chariot, crushing another one in the falling debris. As the race continued on through a tunnel, Gamora targeted Tony who began questioning who Gamora was besides Thanos' daughter. A steep drop at the end of the tunnel took out a number of the remaining racers. As Gamora targeted Tony again, Valkyrie blew up another racer with a laser, blocking Gamora's shot. Topaz caught up to Tony and destroyed his chariot, but Tony responded by quickly transforming his new armor into a race car to continue the race with, much to the delight of his friends and the crowd, running Topaz off of the track and leaving her struggling to get her chariot going again.
Seeing Tony's new race car, the Grandmaster deployed a series of spike traps, destroying more racers, ultimately leaving only the Grandmaster, Tony, Gamora, Valkyrie and Korg unharmed. Tony continued to appeal to Gamora, empathizing with living in your dad's shadow and doing stuff that you're not proud of, admitting that people had died because of who Tony was and what he had built. Tony insisted that people could change for the better and he and Gamora were not their fathers. Tony had made a choice to change for the better and he became Iron Man. As the Grandmaster released two more creatures like Snuffy, Tony urged Gamora to decide who she wanted to be instead of her father or her past. Moved by Tony's words, Gamora shifted her target to the creatures instead of Tony, declared her name and used her chariot's rockets to stop Tony from behind crushed underfoot by one of them, but as a consequence, Gamora hit the other creature and wrecked her chariot.
As they passed through a tunnel, a series of explosions set off by the Grandmaster knocked Valkyrie and Korg out of the race, leaving it down to Tony and the Grandmaster. With the Grandmaster in the lead as they approached the finish line, Tony used his arc reactor to give his race car a power boost. Surrounded by glowing blue energy, Tony's race car quickly accelerated to an incredible speed, blasting past the Grandmaster through the finish line, leaving Tony as the clear winner of the race and the crowd cheering for him. Transforming his race car back into his armor, Tony confronted the Grandmaster who attempted to cheat by claiming that they had a tie which would leave the Grandmaster to choose the winner, much to the disgust of the crowd. Having recovered from being run off of the road earlier, Topaz attempted to run Tony down with her staff on the Grandmaster's orders, but Valkyrie rammed Topaz's chariot, destroying both vehicles. Flying through the air and rolling to a stop against the Grandmaster's foot, Topaz's staff melted the Grandmaster into a puddle, apparently killing him.
With their tyrannical ruler defeated, the Sakaarans began cheering for Valkyrie as their new king. Accepting this and eager to make a change, Valkyrie appointed Korg as her new Special Counsel to the King. The three friends shared a celebratory drink that once again left Tony disgusted and Tony refused an offer to stay, wanting to go home to Pepper. Tony boarded a ship, but he was approached by Gamora before he could take off as Gamora couldn't return to her father without Tony.
Gamora brought Tony before Thanos, ostensibly as her captive. Thanos congratulated his daughter and noted that he'd expected more of Iron Man, amusing Gamora that someone had finally gotten Tony's superhero name right. Revealing that they had actually teamed up together, Gamora leapt at Thanos and Tony threw her Topaz's staff. Slamming the staff into her bored father's chest, Gamora destroyed Thanos.
In a post-credits scene, the still alive Grandmaster asked Topaz to get a bucket to collect his new puddle form.
Cast[]
- Jeffrey Wright as The Watcher
- Mick Wingert as Tony Stark/Iron Man
- Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster
- Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie
- Taika Waititi as Korg
- Josh Brolin as Thanos
- Cynthia McWilliams as Gamora
- Rachel House as Topaz
- Terri Douglas as Additional Voices
- Robin Atkin Downes as Additional Voices
- Melanie Minichino as Additional Voices
- Dave B. Mitchell as Additional Voices
- Michael Ralph as Additional Voices
- Helen Sadler as Additional Voices
- Matthew Wood as Additional Voices
- Secunda Wood as Additional Voices
Non-Speaking Roles[]
- Pepper Potts
- Roscoe
- Biff
- Tasba
- Snuffy
- Nikos
- Peggy Carter/Captain Carter
- Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
- Star-Lord T'Challa
- Party Thor
- Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange Supreme
- King Killmonger
- Infinity Ultron
The Watcher's Narrations[]
- "The Guardians of the Multiverse. Heroes plucked from across different realities to protect the fate of all of them. But you don't know her story. From the daughter of a Mad Titan to the champion of a multiversal war, Gamora's path to becoming the hero of her story began in someone else's."
- "With his home on the verge of destruction, Tony Stark, self-made Iron Man, made the ultimate hero's play. But in this universe, Tony never made it home."
- "So close to home, his odyssey almost at an end, except... It's not the punches thrown but the people that change the outcome of the battle. It's connection. It's love, friendship. It's knowing someone has your back in a fight."
Continuity and References to the Marvel Cinematic Universe[]
- Battle of New York is mentioned.
- Chitauri Command Center and Leviathans appear.
- Sakaar appears.
- Melt Stick appears.
- Arc Reactor appears.
- Sakaaran Iron Man Armor appears.
- Sanctuary appears.
Trivia[]
- Tony makes several references to the Hunger Games.
- The Grandmaster melting after his defeat is similar to the Wicked Witch of the West at the end of The Wizard of Oz.
- This episode was originally planned for season 1, but it had to be pushed back to season 2 due to COVID-19 related production issues.[1]
- This change is reflected with the Watcher explaining at the beginning that this story is to explain the background of the Gamora who had fought as a part of the Guardians of the Multiverse in "What If... The Watcher Broke His Oath?."
Gallery[]
To be added
Videos[]
