“I am The Watcher. I observe all that transpires here. But I do not, cannot, will not interfere.” Marvel Studios Animation released its first animated series, “What if…?” in 2021, an animated anthology series by A.C. Bradley based on the Marvel comic book series of the same name. One of the biggest characters in the Marvel universe headlines this show, The Watcher, voiced by Jeffrey Wright who narrates all of the alternative events pertaining to the “What if?” idea – What if things happened differently in the MCU? With his awaited live-action appearance in ‘I Am Groot’ season 2, the big question now is, Who really is “The Watcher”?
Origin
The Watcher first appeared in the comic series, The Fantastic Four, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Volume 1, Issue 13 on April 13, 1963. In the comic series, the Watcher did what he was not supposed to do: Intervene.
He stopped a fight between the fantastic four and their villain Red Ghost (who has three super-powered apes) “I come from a world so far from here that you do not even suspect its existence!”. He goes on to say that watchers roam the entire universe watching, observing other worlds, and witnessing the death of other worlds, older than Earth’s entire galaxy. In simple words, Watchers are one of the oldest beings in the universe. But why was he not supposed to intervene?
Why Watchers do not intervene
Watchers initially thought that their purpose is to protect the universe from any and all kinds of harm. And, since watchers are very advanced in technology, a very long time ago, they gave nuclear technology to another alien race called Prosilicans.
However, they used this technology for war. It saddened The Watchers, thinking that they only wanted to help the Prosilicans advance their technology, not to use the technology for war. Due to this, The Watchers vowed to never interfere but to only observe and record. Now, you might be asking, where do they store their collective knowledge? Is it all in their head?
Where do watchers store their knowledge?
Every watcher who ever lived, store their knowledge at the Cyclopedia Universum. It is the history of the universe. It is a pocket dimension used to store the knowledge of every Watcher throughout the history of the universe for those who will come after the universe ends.
Who is Uatu?
Uatu is the Watcher who observed the Multiverse from the Nexus of All Realities, a cross-dimensional gateway that allows access to all possible realities. And like every Watcher, Uatu vowed to never interfere with the events occurring in the realities that he observed. This was vanquished when the Superior Ultron who had the infinity stones, sensed his presence and knew about the Multiverse, forcing him to contravene his oath to protect the timelines the Ultron threats.
With such a difficult task of defeating Superior Ultron, Uatu asked Doctor Strange (the sinister variant) for help. It was originally planned for Doctor Strange to simply fight Ultron, but the more the Watcher thought about it, the more he understood that bringing together the humans he had previously seen to combat the AI would be more successful. Uatu took Captain Carter, Star-Lord, Gamora, Erik Killmonger, Thor, and Doctor Strange, notifying them about Ultron’s campaign to destroy the Multiverse while Doctor Strange explained the Infinity stones to them. Uatu then dubbed them as Guardians of the Multiverse. To know more about The Watcher, you can read the comics where he is shown. Such as The Fantastic Four Volume 1 Issue 13, King and Black Symbiote Spider-man, Original Sin, Empyre Fall Out, Fantastic 4 Issue 1, What If series, and Fantastic 4 “The Coming of Galactus” Issue 48.
Why is The Watcher in I Am Groot Season 2?
The Watcher is an omnipotent being but has never been in a live-action adaptation in the MCU. Well, surprise surprise! MCU‘s I Am Groot season 2’s trailer just teased us with The Watcher’s appearance. The ‘I Am Groot’ series is a compilation of shorts, and season 2 has 5 of them.
Although The Watcher was spotted in the trailer, nobody knows for sure what its involvement with Groot’s adventures would be. My theory is that this would be a build-up for ‘What If…’ season 2. But hey, that’s just my two cents. Season 1 of I Am Groot was filled with short episodes featuring the mischievous baby Groot. Season 2 is slated to be released on September 6, 2023.
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