Timeline:
June–July 2010 (What If… Thaddeus Ross Became Red Hulk in 2010?)
May–June 2016 (What If… Emil Blonsky Became Secretary of State?)
June–July 2016 (What If… Emil Blonsky Hunted Natasha Romanoff?)
May–June 2018 (What If… Emil Blonsky Fought in Wakanda?)
June 2018/October 2023 (What If… Emil Blonsky Was Involved in the Time Heist?)
May 2024 (What If… Wong Fought Red Hulk?)
March–May 2025 (What If… Thaddeus Ross Was Released From DODC Custody?)
TBA (What If... Emil Blonsky Became President of the United States?)
TBA (What If... Emil Blonsky Led the Thunderbolts?)
Plot
What If… Thaddeus Ross Became Red Hulk in 2010?
At Culver University in Virginia, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross meets with Dr. Bruce Banner, the colleague and boyfriend of his daughter Betty, regarding an experiment that Ross claims is meant to make humans immune to gamma radiation. The experiment—part of a World War II-era "super soldier" program that Ross hopes to re-create—fails. The exposure to gamma radiation causes Banner to transform into the Hulk for brief periods of time, whenever his heart rate rises above 200 beats per minute (BPM). The Hulk destroys the lab and surrounding area, killing several people inside and injuring the General and Betty, and others outside. Banner becomes a fugitive from the U.S. military and Ross, who wants to weaponize the Hulk.
Five years later, Banner works at a bottling factory in Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, while searching for a cure for his condition. On the internet, he anonymously collaborates with a colleague known only as "Mr. Blue". He is learning Yoga techniques to help keep control and has not transformed in five months. After Banner cuts his finger, a drop of his blood falls into a bottle, which is eventually ingested by an elderly consumer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, giving him gamma sickness. Using the bottle to track down Banner, Ross sends a special forces team, led by Emil Blonsky, to capture him. Banner transforms into the Hulk and defeats Blonsky's team, with Blonsky surviving. After Ross explains how Banner became the Hulk, Ross injects himself with a similar serum, which gives him enhanced speed, strength, agility, and healing powers but also begins to turn him red and impair his judgment.
Banner returns to Culver University and reunites with Betty. Banner is attacked a second time by Ross and Blonsky's forces, tipped off by Betty's suspicious boyfriend, Leonard Samson, causing Banner to again transform into the Hulk. The ensuing battle outside the university proves futile for Ross' forces, and they retreat, though Ross, whose sanity is faltering, attacks and mocks the Hulk. The Hulk severely injures Ross and flees with Betty. After the Hulk reverts to Banner, he and Betty go on the run, and Banner contacts Mr. Blue, who urges them to meet him in New York City. Mr. Blue is actually cellular biologist Dr. Samuel Sterns, who tells Banner he has developed a possible antidote to Banner's condition. After a successful test, he warns Banner that the antidote may only reverse each transformation. Sterns reveals he has synthesized Banner's blood samples, which Banner sent from Brazil, into a large supply, to apply its "limitless potential" to medicine. Fearful of the Hulk's power falling into the military's hands, Banner wishes to destroy the blood supply.
A recovered Ross joins his forces and Blonsky for a third attempt to take Banner into custody. They succeed, and Banner and Betty are taken away in a helicopter. Ross stays behind and orders Sterns to inject him with Banner's blood, as he covets the Hulk's power. The experiment mutates Ross into Red Hulk, a red version of the Hulk with size and strength surpassing that of the Hulk. He attacks Sterns, who gets some of Banner's blood in a cut on his forehead, causing him to begin mutating as well. The Red Hulk rampages through Harlem. Realizing that the Hulk is the only one who can stop the Red Hulk, Banner convinces Blonsky to release him. He jumps from Blonsky's helicopter and transforms after hitting the ground. After a battle throughout Harlem, the Hulk defeats the Red Hulk by nearly strangling him to death with a chain, but spares his life upon hearing Betty's plea and leaves the Red Hulk for Blonsky and Ross' forces to arrest. After having a peaceful moment with Betty, the Hulk flees New York.
A month later, Banner is in Bella Coola, British Columbia. Instead of suppressing his transformation, he begins to transform in a controlled manner with a slight smirk. Later, Tony Stark approaches Blonsky at a local bar and informs him that a team is being put together. In a series of mid and post-credits scenes, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson reports the discovery of a large hammer at the bottom of a crater in a desert in New Mexico; astrophysicist Dr. Erik Selvig is taken to a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, where Nick Fury opens a briefcase and asks him to study a mysterious cube-shaped object, which Fury says may hold untold power. An invisible Loki prompts Selvig to agree; Fury approaches Steve Rogers and proposes a mission with worldwide ramifications; the Other confers with his master about the failed attack on Earth; Volstagg and Sif visit the Collector and entrust the Aether to his care, with the Tesseract already in Asgard, as they fear having two Infinity Stones so close together would be dangerous. As they leave, the Collector states his desire to acquire the other five Stones; Foster and Thor reunite on Earth; at a Hydra lab, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and his scientists examine an energy-filled scepter and two test subjects: one with superhuman speed, the other with telekinetic powers; Bucky Barnes visits his own memorial at the Smithsonian Institution; Tivan sits in his destroyed archive with two of his living exhibits: a canine cosmonaut and an anthropomorphic duck; Thanos dons a gauntlet and vows to retrieve the Infinity Stones himself; Hank Pym shows Hope van Dyne a new Wasp prototype suit and offers it to her; and Rogers and Sam Wilson haves Barnes in their custody. Unable to contact Tony Stark because of "the accords", Wilson mentions that he knows someone who can help.
What If… Emil Blonsky Became Secretary of State?
In 1991, the brainwashed super-soldier James "Bucky" Barnes is dispatched from a Hydra base in Siberia to intercept an automobile carrying a case of super-soldier serum. In the present day, approximately one year after Ultron is defeated by the Avengers in the nation of Sokovia, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, and Wanda Maximoff stop Brock Rumlow from stealing a biological weapon from a lab in Lagos. Rumlow blows himself up, attempting to kill Rogers. Maximoff telekinetically diverts the explosion, accidentally destroying a nearby building and killing several Wakandan humanitarian workers in the process.
Emil Blonsky, the U.S. Secretary of State, informs the Avengers that the United Nations (UN) is preparing to pass the Sokovia Accords, which will establish a UN panel to oversee and control the team. The Avengers are divided: Tony Stark supports oversight because of his role in Ultron's creation and Sokovia's devastation, while Rogers has more faith in his own judgment than that of politicians. Meanwhile, Helmut Zemo tracks down and kills Barnes' old Hydra handler, stealing a book containing the trigger words that activate Barnes' brainwashing. At a UN conference in Vienna where the Accords are to be ratified, a bomb kills King T'Chaka of Wakanda. Security footage indicates the bomber is Barnes, whom T'Chaka's son, T'Challa, vows to kill. Informed by Sharon Carter of Barnes' whereabouts and the authorities' intentions to kill him, Rogers decides to try to bring in Barnes—his childhood friend and war comrade—himself. Rogers and Wilson track Barnes to Bucharest and attempt to protect him from T'Challa and the authorities, but all four, including T'Challa, are apprehended by the Bucharest police and James Rhodes.
Impersonating a psychiatrist sent to interview Barnes, Zemo recites the words to activate Barnes' brainwashing. He questions Barnes, then sends him on a rampage to cover his own escape. Rogers stops Barnes and sneaks him away. When Barnes regains his senses, he explains that Zemo is the real Vienna bomber and wanted the location of the Siberian Hydra base, where other brainwashed "Winter Soldiers" are kept in cryogenic stasis. Unwilling to wait for authorization to apprehend Zemo, Rogers and Wilson go rogue, and recruit Maximoff, Clint Barton, and Scott Lang to their cause. With Blonsky's permission, Stark assembles a team composed of Romanoff, T'Challa, Rhodes, Vision, and Peter Parker to capture the renegades. Stark's team intercepts Rogers' group at Leipzig/Halle Airport, where they fight until Romanoff allows Rogers and Barnes to escape. As Rogers and Barnes are escaping, Rhodes is inadvertently shot down by Vision, and becomes partially paralyzed. The rest of Rogers' team is captured and detained at the Raft prison, and Romanoff goes into exile.
Stark discovers evidence that Barnes was framed by Zemo and convinces Wilson to give him Rogers' destination. Without informing Blonsky, Stark goes to the Siberian Hydra facility and strikes a truce with Rogers and Barnes, unaware that they were secretly followed by T'Challa. They find that the other super-soldiers have been killed by Zemo, who then shows them footage that reveals that the automobile Barnes had intercepted in 1991 contained Stark's parents, whom Barnes subsequently killed. Enraged that Rogers kept this from him, Stark turns on them both, leading to an intense fight, in which Stark destroys Barnes' robotic arm, and Rogers disables Stark's armor. Rogers departs with Barnes, leaving his shield behind. Satisfied that he has avenged his family's deaths in Sokovia from the Avengers' actions by successfully fracturing them, Zemo attempts suicide, but he is stopped by T'Challa and taken to the authorities.
In the aftermath, Stark provides Rhodes with exoskeletal leg braces that allow him to walk again, while Rogers breaks his allies out of the Raft. In a series of mid and post-credits scenes, Barnes, granted asylum in Wakanda, chooses to return to cryogenic sleep until a cure for his brainwashing is found; Parker explores the features of the web shooters built for him by Stark; Strange decides to help Thor, who has brought his brother Loki to Earth to search for their father, Odin; Mordo confronts Pangborn and steals the mystical energy he uses, telling him that Earth has "too many sorcerers"; Kraglin takes up Yondu's telekinetic arrow and control-fin; Ravager leader Stakar Ogord reunites with his ex-teammates; Ayesha creates Adam, a new artificial being with whom she plans to destroy the Guardians of the Galaxy; Groot grows into a teenager; an incarcerated Mac Gargan approaches Adrian Toomes in prison, saying he has heard that the latter knows Spider-Man's real identity, though Toomes denies this; the Asgardian refugees are intercepted by a large spacecraft; the overthrown Grandmaster is confronted by his former subjects; T'Challa appears before the United Nations to reveal Wakanda's true nature to the world; and Shuri helps Barnes with his rehabilitation.
What If… Emil Blonsky Fought in Wakanda?
Having acquired the Power Stone–one of six Infinity Stones–from the planet Xandar, Thanos and his lieutenants—Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive—intercept the spaceship carrying the survivors of Asgard's destruction. After subduing Thor, Thanos extracts the Space Stone from the Tesseract, overpowers the Hulk, and kills Loki. Thanos also kills Heimdall after he sends Hulk to Earth using the Bifröst. Thanos and his lieutenants leave, destroying the ship.
Hulk crash-lands in the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City, reverting to the form of Bruce Banner. He warns Stephen Strange and Wong about Thanos' plan to destroy half of all life in the universe, and they recruit Tony Stark. Maw and Obsidian arrive to retrieve the Time Stone from Strange, drawing Peter Parker's attention. Maw, unable to take the Time Stone due to Strange's enchantment, captures him. Stark and Parker sneak aboard Maw's spaceship while Wong stays behind to guard the Sanctum.
The Guardians of the Galaxy–Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Mantis, Groot, and Rocket–respond to the Asgardian ship's distress call and rescue Thor. Thor surmises that Thanos is after the Reality Stone, which Taneleer Tivan possesses on Knowhere. He travels with Rocket and Groot to Nidavellir to enlist the dwarf king Eitri's aid in creating the battle-axe Stormbreaker. Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis travel to Knowhere, finding Thanos already has the Reality Stone. Thanos kidnaps Gamora, who discloses the Soul Stone's location to save Nebula from torture. On Vormir, the Stone's keeper, Red Skull, tells Thanos that he can only acquire it by sacrificing someone he loves. Thanos sacrifices Gamora, earning the Stone.
In Edinburgh, Midnight and Glaive ambush Wanda Maximoff and Vision to retrieve the Mind Stone in Vision's forehead. Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Sam Wilson rescue them and they take shelter with James Rhodes and Banner at the Avengers Compound. After Emil Blonsky arrives to help the Avengers, Vision asks Wanda to destroy him and the Mind Stone to keep it from Thanos, but Wanda refuses. Rogers suggests they travel to Wakanda, which he believes has the resources to remove the Stone without killing Vision.
Nebula escapes captivity and asks the remaining Guardians to meet her on Thanos' destroyed homeworld, Titan. Stark and Parker kill Maw and rescue Strange. The trio crash-lands on Titan, where they meet Quill, Drax, and Mantis. Using the Time Stone, Strange views millions of possible futures, seeing only one in which the Avengers win. The group formulates a plan to subdue Thanos and remove the Infinity Gauntlet, with which he safely houses and wields the Stones. Thanos appears, justifying his plans as necessary to guarantee the survival of an overpopulated universe. Nebula arrives soon after and helps the others subdue Thanos, but then deduces that Thanos has killed Gamora. Enraged, Quill attacks Thanos, inadvertently allowing him to break the group's hold and overpower them. Thanos grievously wounds Stark, but Strange offers the Time Stone in exchange for sparing Stark's life.
In Wakanda, Rogers reunites with Bucky Barnes before Thanos' army invades. The Avengers, along with T'Challa and the Wakandan forces, mount a defense while Shuri works to extract the Mind Stone from Vision. Unable to summon the Hulk after losing to Thanos, Banner fights in Stark's Hulkbuster armor. Thor, Rocket, and Groot arrive to reinforce the Avengers. Together they kill Midnight, Obsidian, and Glaive, and rout Thanos' army. Shuri cannot complete the extraction before Thanos himself arrives on the field, slowed only briefly by Banner, Blonsky, Rogers, T'Challa, Wilson, Rhodes, Barnes, Okoye, Romanoff, and Groot. Vision convinces a reluctant Wanda to destroy him and the Mind Stone, but Thanos uses the Time Stone to reverse her actions, rip the stone from Vision's forehead, and complete the Gauntlet. Although Thor severely wounds Thanos with Stormbreaker, Thanos activates the completed Gauntlet by snapping his fingers before teleporting away.
Half of all life across the universe disintegrates, including Barnes, T'Challa, Groot, Wanda, Wilson, Mantis, Drax, Quill, Strange, Parker, Maria Hill, and Nick Fury, the last of whom sends an emergency signal on a modified pager before disintegrating. Stark and Nebula remain stranded on Titan while Banner, Blonsky, M'Baku, Okoye, Rhodes, Rocket, Rogers, Romanoff, and Thor are left on the Wakandan battlefield. Meanwhile, Thanos watches a sunrise on a remote planet. In a series of mid and post-credits scenes, Hank Pym, Hope van Dyne, and Janet van Dyne send Scott Lang into the Quantum Realm to harvest quantum energy in a plan to help Ava remain stable. Before they can retrieve Lang, the other three turn to dust; the modified pager is being monitored by the Avengers when Carol Danvers appears looking for Fury; and in 1995, Goose climbs onto Fury's desk and regurgitates the Tesseract.
What If… Emil Blonsky Was Involved in the Time Heist?
In 2018, twenty-three days after Thanos erased half of all life in the universe, Carol Danvers rescues Tony Stark and Nebula from deep space and they reunite with the remaining Avengers—Bruce Banner, Emil Blonsky, Steve Rogers, Thor, Natasha Romanoff, and James Rhodes—and Rocket on Earth. Locating Thanos on an uninhabited planet, they plan to use the Infinity Stones to reverse his actions, only to find that Thanos has already destroyed them and the Gauntlet, thus preventing any further use. Enraged, Thor decapitates Thanos.
Five years later, Scott Lang escapes from the Quantum Realm. Reaching the Avengers Compound, he explains that he experienced only five hours while trapped. Theorizing that the Quantum Realm allows time travel, they ask a reluctant Stark to help them retrieve the Stones from the past to reverse the actions of Thanos in the present. Stark, Rocket, Banner, and Blonsky, the latter two having been able to merge their intelligence with the Hulk's strength (with Blonsky becoming a third Hulk being known as "Maestro"), build a time machine. Banner notes that altering the past does not affect their present; any changes create alternate realities. Banner and Rocket travel to Norway, where they visit the Asgardian refugees' settlement New Asgard and recruit an overweight and despondent Thor. In Tokyo, Romanoff recruits Clint Barton, who became a vigilante after his family was erased during the execution of Thanos' plan.
Banner, Blonsky, Rogers, and Stark time-travel to New York City during Loki's attack in 2012. At the Sanctum Sanctorum, Banner and Blonsky convince the Ancient One to give them the Time Stone after promising to return the various Stones to their proper points in time. At Stark Tower, Rogers retrieves the Mind Stone from Hydra sleeper agents, but Stark and Lang's attempt to steal the Space Stone fails, allowing 2012-Loki to escape with it. Rogers and Stark travel to Camp Lehigh in 1970, where Stark obtains an earlier version of the Space Stone and encounters his father, Howard. Rogers steals Pym Particles from Hank Pym to return to the present and spies his lost love, Peggy Carter.
Meanwhile, Rocket and Thor travel to Asgard in 2013; Rocket extracts the Reality Stone from Jane Foster, while Thor gets encouragement from his mother, Frigga, and retrieves his old hammer, Mjølnir. Barton, Romanoff, Nebula, and Rhodes travel to 2014; Nebula and Rhodes go to Morag and steal the Power Stone before Peter Quill can, while Barton and Romanoff travel to Vormir. The Soul Stone's keeper, Red Skull, reveals it can only be acquired by sacrificing a loved one. Romanoff sacrifices herself, allowing Barton to get the Stone. Rhodes and Nebula attempt to return to their own time, but Nebula is incapacitated when her cybernetic implants link with her past self, allowing 2014-Thanos to learn of his future self's success and the Avengers' attempt to undo it. 2014-Thanos sends 2014-Nebula forward in time to prepare for his arrival.
Reuniting in the present, the Avengers place the Stones into a gauntlet that Stark, Banner, and Rocket have built. Banner, who has the most resistance to their radiation, uses the gauntlet to undo every one of Thanos's disintegrations. Meanwhile, 2014-Nebula, impersonating her future self, uses the time machine to transport 2014-Thanos and his warship to the present, which he then uses to destroy the Avengers Compound. Present-day Nebula convinces 2014-Gamora to betray Thanos, but is unable to convince 2014-Nebula and kills her. Thanos overpowers Stark, Thor and a Mjølnir-wielding Rogers, and summons his army to retrieve the Stones, intent on using them to destroy the universe and create a new one. A restored Stephen Strange arrives with other sorcerers, the restored Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, the Ravagers, and the armies of Wakanda and Asgard to fight Thanos' army. Danvers also arrives and destroys Thanos' warship, but Thanos overpowers her and seizes the gauntlet. Stark steals the Stones and uses them to disintegrate Thanos and his army, despite killing himself in doing so.
Following Stark's funeral, Thor appoints Valkyrie as the new king of New Asgard and joins the Guardians. Rogers returns the Stones and Mjølnir to their proper timelines and remains in the past to live with Carter. In the present, an elderly Rogers passes his shield to Sam Wilson. In a series of mid and post-credits scenes, J. Jonah Jameson of broadcasts doctored footage of the Battle of London in which Quentin Beck frames Spider-Man for the drone attack and his death before exposing Spider-Man's secret identity to the world, much to Peter Parker's shock; Nick Fury and Maria Hill are revealed to be the Skrulls Talos and Soren in disguise, under orders from the real Fury while he is away in space commanding a group of Skrulls; S.W.O.R.D. director Tyler Hayward reactivates "The Vision", the now all-white, reassembled original body; Hayward is arrested while Monica Rambeau is informed by a Skrull that a friend of her mother's wants to meet. In a post-credits scene, Wanda hears the twins cry for help while studying the Darkhold in her astral form; John Walker builds a new shield from scrap metal and his war medals; after receiving a full pardon, Sharon Carter rejoins the CIA and intends to use this access to sell government secrets and resources; and Loki awakens surrounded by several other Loki variants.
What If… Emil Blonsky Hunted Natasha Romanoff?
In 1995, super soldier Alexei Shostakov and Black Widow assassin Melina Vostokoff work as Russian undercover agents, posing as a family in Ohio with Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova as their daughters. They steal S.H.I.E.L.D. intel and escape to Cuba where their boss, General Dreykov, has Romanoff and Belova taken to the Red Room for training as Widows. In the following decades, Shostakov is imprisoned in Russia while Romanoff and Belova become successful, dangerous assassins. Romanoff eventually defects to S.H.I.E.L.D. after helping Clint Barton bomb Dreykov's Budapest office, which apparently kills Dreykov and his young daughter Antonia.
In 2016, Romanoff is a fugitive for violating the Sokovia Accords. She escapes from U.S. Secretary of State Emil Blonsky and flees to a safehouse in Norway supplied by Rick Mason. Meanwhile, Belova kills a rogue former Widow but comes in contact with a synthetic gas that neutralizes the Red Room's chemical mind-control agent. Belova sends antidote vials to Romanoff, hoping she and the Avengers can free the other Widows, and goes into hiding. When Romanoff is unknowingly driving with the vials in her car, Red Room agent Taskmaster attacks her. Romanoff escapes from Taskmaster and realizes that the vials came from Budapest. There she finds Belova, who reveals that Dreykov is alive and the Red Room is still active. Widows and Taskmaster attack them, but Romanoff and Belova evade them and meet with Mason, who supplies them with a helicopter.
Romanoff and Belova break Shostakov out of prison to learn Dreykov's location, and he directs them to Vostokoff, who lives on a farm outside Saint Petersburg. There she is refining the chemical mind control process used on the Widows. Vostokoff alerts Dreykov and his agents arrive to take them, but Romanoff convinces Vostokoff to help them and the pair use face mask technology to switch places. At the Red Room, a secret aerial facility, Vostokoff frees Shostakov and Belova from their restraints. Dreykov sees through Romanoff's disguise. He reveals that Taskmaster is Antonia, who suffered damage in the Budapest bombing that was so severe Dreykov had to put technology in her head to save her. This turned Antonia into the perfect soldier, capable of mimicking the actions of anyone she sees. Romanoff is unable to attack Dreykov due to a pheromone lock installed in every Widow, but negates that by breaking her own nose and severing her olfactory nerve. Shostakov battles Taskmaster while Vostokoff takes out one of the facility's engines, and they then lock Taskmaster in a cell.
Dreykov escapes as other Widows attack Romanoff, but Belova exposes them to the antidote. Romanoff copies the locations of other Widows worldwide from Dreykov's computer as the facility begins to explode and fall. She retrieves two surviving antidote vials and frees Taskmaster from the locked cell. Vostokoff and Shostakov escape via a plane while Belova takes out Dreykov's aircraft, killing him. In freefall, Romanoff gives Belova a parachute before battling Taskmaster. After landing, Romanoff uses one antidote vial on Taskmaster and gives the other to Belova along with the locations of the other mind-controlled Widows so she can find and free them. Belova, Vostokoff, and Shostakov say goodbye to Romanoff and leave with Antonia and the freed Widows. Two weeks later, Mason supplies Romanoff with a Quinjet to use in freeing the imprisoned Avengers.
In a post-credits scene set after Romanoff's death, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine visits Belova at Romanoff's grave. De Fontaine blames Romanoff's death on Barton and assigns him as Belova's next target. In a post-credits scene, Peggy Carter / Captain Carter and her universe's Romanoff discover the Hydra
What If… Wong Fought Red Hulk?
A thousand years ago, Xu Wenwu discovers the mystical ten rings which grant godly powers including immortality. He establishes the Ten Rings organization, conquering kingdoms and toppling governments throughout history. In 1996, Wenwu searches for Ta Lo, a village said to harbor mythical beasts. He travels through a magical forest to the village entrance but is stopped by a guardian, Ying Li. The two soon fall in love, but the Ta Lo villagers reject Wenwu so Li chooses to leave with him. They marry and have two children, Shang-Chi and Xialing. Wenwu abandons his organization and locks away the ten rings.
When Shang-Chi is seven years old, Li is murdered by Wenwu's enemies, the Iron Gang. Wenwu dons the rings once again, massacres the Iron Gang, and resumes leadership of his organization. He makes Shang-Chi undergo brutal training in martial arts but does not allow Xialing to train, prompting her to secretly teach herself. When Shang-Chi is 14, Wenwu sends him to assassinate the Iron Gang's leader. After completing his mission, a traumatized Shang-Chi runs away to San Francisco and adopts the name "Shaun".
In the present day, Shang-Chi works as a parking valet with his best friend Katy. They are attacked on a bus by the Ten Rings organization who steal a pendant that Li gave to Shang-Chi. Shang-Chi travels to Macau to find Xialing, fearing that the Ten Rings will go after her matching pendant. He reveals his past to Katy who insists on helping him. They find Xialing at a secret fight club which she founded after escaping from Wenwu at 16. The Ten Rings attack the fight club and Wenwu arrives to capture Shang-Chi, Katy, Xialing, and her pendant.
At the Ten Rings' compound, Wenwu uses the pendants to reveal a mystical map leading to Ta Lo. Wenwu explains that he has heard Li calling and believes she has been held captive in Ta Lo behind a sealed gate. He plans to destroy the village unless they release her. When his children and Katy object, he imprisons them. They meet former actor Trevor Slattery, whom the Ten Rings imprisoned for impersonating Wenwu, and his hundun companion Morris. They escape and Morris guides them to Ta Lo, which exists in a separate dimension with various Chinese mythological creatures.
The group meet Li's sister Ying Nan who explains the history of Ta Lo: thousands of years ago, the village's universe was attacked by the soul-consuming Dweller-in-Darkness and its soul eaters, but was saved by a Chinese dragon called the Great Protector who helped seal the Dark Gate to the Dweller's world. According to Nan, the Dweller-in-Darkness has been impersonating Li so Wenwu will use the ten rings to open the Gate. Shang-Chi, Xialing, Katy, Slattery, and Morris join the villagers in training and preparing for Wenwu's arrival, using outfits and weapons crafted from dragon scales that are effective against the soul eaters.
Wenwu and the Ten Rings arrive and attack. Wenwu overpowers Shang-Chi, pushes him into the nearby lake, and attacks the Gate with the rings. This allows some of the Dweller's soul eaters to escape, and the Ten Rings join forces with the villagers to fight them. The Great Protector revives Shang-Chi and bears him from the lake to battle the soul eaters. Wenwu and Shang-Chi fight once more, and Shang-Chi gains the upper hand but chooses to spare Wenwu. The Dweller-in-Darkness escapes from the weakened Gate and attacks Shang-Chi. Wenwu saves Shang-Chi but is killed by the Dweller-in-Darkness; he bequeaths the rings to Shang-Chi before he dies. Shang-Chi, the Great Protector, Xialing, and Katy slay the Dweller-in-Darkness. Afterward, Shang-Chi and Katy return to San Francisco where the sorcerer Wong summons them to Kamar-Taj.
In a series of mid and post-credits scenes, Wong introduces Shang-Chi and Katy to Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers and the group discusses the origins of the rings. They discover that the rings are acting as a beacon to something; Xialing becomes the new leader of the Ten Rings, despite telling Shang-Chi that she would disband the organization, and begins training women alongside men; the Eternals Thena, Makkari, and Druig meet the Eternal Eros and his assistant Pip the Troll; an unseen person questions whether Dane Whitman is ready to wield the Ebony Blade; the Egyptian goddess Ammit's avatar Arthur Harrow and Ammit are killed by Jake Lockley, Marc Spector's (the avatar of the Egyptian god Khonshu) third alter, who is still working with Khonshu; Strange is approached by a sorceress who warns him that his actions have triggered an incursion that he must help fix. Strange follows her into the Dark Dimension; Department of Damage Control (DODC) agents P. Cleary and Sadie Deever watch a video of the incident at AvengerCon and head to New Jersey to find and detain Kamala Khan; Kamala's bangle emits a strange glow before Kamala switches places with Danvers; in Omnipotence City, a recuperating Zeus sends his son Hercules to kill Thor; and Thor's ex-girlfriend Jane Foster arrives at the gates of Valhalla, where Heimdall welcomes her.
What If… Thaddeus Ross Was Released From DODC Custody?
After defeating Titania, lawyer Jennifer "Jen" Walters gains public notoriety after defeating Titania and is dubbed "She-Hulk". However, the case is declared a mistrial after the defense successfully argues that her fight with Titania influenced the jury, and she is fired from the district attorney's office. Unable to find other work, Walters is offered a position by opposing counsel Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg Holliway (GLKH) and impulsively accepts, bringing along her best friend Nikki Ramos as her paralegal. On Walters' first day, GLKH partner Holden Holliway informs her that he wants her to head up the firm's new superhuman law division and work as She-Hulk full-time. Her first case is to represent Thaddeus Ross / Red Hulk at his parole hearing. Though initially reluctant due to Ross' past attempt to kill Banner, Walters gets Banner's approval and accepts the case as he departs inside a Sakaaran spacecraft. Walters soon learns that Ross apparently escaped from prison and participated in an underground fight club. ("Superhuman Law")
Walters confronts Ross, who explains that he was removed from his cell by the Sorcerer Supreme Wong and that he returned to prison willingly afterwards. While she attempts to contact Wong, news of her appointment as Ross' lawyer stirs up public controversy. Wong meets with Walters and agrees to testify at Ross' parole hearing, during which Ross demonstrates his ability to remain in control as the Red Hulk. Ross is released on parole, but forbidden from transforming again. Meanwhile, Walters' former colleague Dennis Bukowski approaches the superhuman law division for a case involving his ex-girlfriend Runa, a shape-shifting Light Elf from New Asgard who defrauded him by impersonating Megan Thee Stallion. The case is assigned to Walters' coworker Augustus "Pug" Pugliese, and Walters helps Pug win the case. After participating in a televised interview, Walters is attacked by the Wrecking Crew, a four-man criminal group consisting of the Wrecker, Piledriver, Bulldozer, and Thunderball who are armed with stolen Asgardian construction tools and were hired by an anonymous client to steal a sample of her blood, but Walters is able to overpower them. ("The People vs. Emil Blonsky")
Walters goes on several dates with Josh Miller, who she met at her high school best friend Lulu's wedding, but he disappears and seemingly ghosts her after they sleep together. While anticipating a text from him, she receives a call from Ross' parole officer who informs her that the inhibitor that stops Ross from turning into Red Hulk is broken and that he wants her to accompany him to Ross' spiritual retreat Summer Twilight to check on him. When the officer leaves, Man-Bull and El Águila accidentally destroy her car, forcing her to stay there until it can be towed away. Despite the retreat lacking internet and cell coverage, Walters continues to nervously await a response from Miller. She attends a group therapy session with Ross, Man-Bull, El Águila, Porcupine, Saracen, and Wrecker, where she is convinced to delete Miller's contact information and let go of her feelings towards him. It is revealed that three days earlier, Miller secretly cloned Walters' phone and stole a sample of her blood on behalf of "HulkKing" after sleeping with her. ("The Retreat")
After attacking a gala, Walters is released from DODC custody, but is forced to wear an inhibitor to prevent her from transforming and loses her job at GLKH. Nikki and Pug infiltrate an Intelligencia event where they learn that Walter's previous date, Josh Phelps, created Intelligencia and reveals he is HulkKing and Ross as the Red Hulk is serving as a motivational speaker. Walters arrives at the event and confronts Phelps, who injects himself with her blood and transforms into a Hulk. After Titania and Banner unexpectedly appear in the ensuing fight, a confused Walters destroys her inhibitor and breaks the fourth wall to confront the show's writers in Marvel Studios: Assembled. She meets with K.E.V.I.N., an artificial intelligence that claims to be in charge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's storyline decisions, and persuades it to rewrite the finale, to which it reluctantly agrees. Returning to her show, she finds Phelps and Ross being arrested. While celebrating with her family and blind lawyer Matt Murdock, Banner returns from Sakaar with his son Skaar. After regaining her job and being cleared of all charges, Walters vows to continue her work as a lawyer and a superhero. In a mid-credits scene, Wong breaks Blonsky out of prison and takes him to Kamar-Taj. ("Whose Show Is This?")