Marvel's What If…? head writer AC Bradley has told IGN that, inadvertently, when cooking up plot points for the animated multiverse anthology, he accidentally came up with half of the storylines that will be used in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. During a brief interview, Bradley was asked to share how the animated show fits into the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe--and he immediately turned to this overlap.

　　However, for obvious reasons, he couldn't discuss this much other than, yes, Marvel really had to reject some of his story ideas. "I'm going to stay away from that question," Bradley told IGN. "So I stay away from Mr. James Gunn and his brilliance and his work, [but] I did go home after that day and cracked open a beer and be like, 'Well, that's going to be an amazing movie but now I gotta go back to the drawing board.'"

　　Further confusing these intersections is another revelation Bradley recently shared: Everything that happens in What If…? is MCU canon. What that exactly means still isn't quite known, but if Bradley came up with the same exact plotlines we'll be seeing in another MCU movie, then it bodes well for the series being true to the universe.

　　The upcoming Marvel animated anthology What If....? debuts August 11 on Disney+. Season 1 will run for nine episodes, and development is reportedly already underway on a nine-episode Season 2. It's still gonna be a while before GotG3 is out--Gunn has said it won't be at least until 2023.

　　David Wolinsky on Google+