What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas? is the third episode of the second season of What If...?
Synopsis[]
When Avengers Tower is attacked during the holiday party, Happy Hogan must prove his hero chops.
Plot[]
On Christmas Eve, Happy Hogan oversees the preparations for the Christmas gala at the Avengers Tower, with Darcy Lewis helping as his intern. Annoyed, Hogan sends Lewis away to buy more cherries just to get rid of her for a while. Maria Hill comments that with J.A.R.V.I.S. being shut down for maintenance, the whole tower is as vulnerable as ever, unsure that Hogan is capable of handling the security on his own. Hogan argues that he is a professional, assuring Hill that he can handle everything.
Meanwhile, Justin Hammer and his men break into the Tower, as Hammer desperately wanted to get back at Tony Stark. While his goons were holding the guests on the gunpoint, Hammer hacks into the Tower's mainframe, triggering an alert. The Iron Legion respond to eliminate the threat, but Hammer overwrites their programming, turning the Legion against the Tower's staff. Sneaking out of their sight, Hogan finds Hammer trying to break into Stark's laboratory and finds out that his goal was to obtain a sample of Hulk's blood to become a superhero that can rival the Avengers, so Hogan takes it upon himself to stop him.
While Hogan gets into the laboratory through an air vent, Hill confronts Hammer at the bar, but ends up being incapacitated by the Iron Legion. Catching it on radio, Hogan falls from the shaft and gets spotted by Hammer's men, so he hurries to get the blood sample. He finds the sample, but accidentally gets injected, which results in Hogan slowly mutating. Running away from the Iron Legion, Hogan hides inside a locker and tries to contact the Avengers, but they are too busy on Christmas to respond. He eventually contacts Lewis and comes up with an idea to reactivate the Tower's mainframe with a backup AI, asking Lewis to handle it. Hogan manages to get away from Hammer's goons, but ends up fully transforming into a purple Hulk-like Freak.
Lewis manages to get into the mainframe and looks for a backup AI, choosing W.E.R.N.E.R., but Hammer's goons capture her, as well as Hill. Hammer tells the Freak that if he wants them to live, he must come to the penthouse, so Hammer could kill him and extract Hulk's blood from his body. The Freak manages to organize an ambush, taking down the Iron Legion and scaring the goons away, so Hammer gains access to the Avengers' armory and retreats. The Freak liberates Lewis and Hill, and while they go to reboot the Tower's systems, the Freak fights through the Legion to get to Hammer. Cornered, Hammer summons the Hulkbuster Armor and fights the Freak, but he proves to be too strong.
Lewis and Hill manage to boot up W.E.R.N.E.R., but he proves to be useless. The Avengers finally arrive; however they mistake the Freak for an enemy and attack him. Lewis manages to convince them that the Freak is Hogan, while pointing them at Hammer who started all of that. Iron Man deactivates his armor and the Freak's roar pushes him down from the Tower, but the Freak rescues him in the name of Christmas' spirit. The Freak apologizes to Stark for letting the attack happen, but Stark does not hold it against him (although ignores his concern about not being able to turn back). As the Avengers go to celebrate, Thor arrives to the Tower, remarking that he had missed the whole party.
Cast[]
Starring Cast:
- Jeffrey Wright as Uatu/Watcher
- Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan/Freak
- Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis
- Cobie Smulders as Director Maria Hill
- Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer
- Chris Hemsworth as Thor
- Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
- Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
- Mick Wingert as Tony Stark/Iron Man
- Lake Bell as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
- Josh Keaton as Steve Rogers/Captain America
- Isaac Robinson-Smith as Sergei / Additional Voices
- Matthew Waterson as Rusty Vyacheslav
- Ross Marquand as W.E.R.N.E.R.
Guest Stars
- Anastasia Baranova as Additional Voices
- June Christopher as Additional Voices
- David Collins as Additional Voices
- Terri Douglas as Additional Voices
- Robin Atkin Downes as Additional Voices
- Toby Larsen as Additional Voices
- Luke Lowe as Additional Voices
- Lucy Lowe as Additional Voices
- Maggie Lowe as Additional Voices
- David B. Mitchell as Additional Voices
- Matthew Wood as Additional Voices
Non-Speaking Characters
Appearances[]
Locations[]
- Earth
- New York City, New York
- Avengers Tower
- Stark Expo (flashback)
- Tent of Tomorrow (flashback)
- Georgia (flashback)
- Seagate Penitentiary (flashback)
- Sokovia (mentioned)
- Nigeria (mentioned)
- Culver University (mentioned)
- New York City, New York
Events[]
- Attack on Avengers Tower
- Battle at Stark Expo (mentioned)
Items[]
- Iron Man Armors
- Arc Reactor
- Vibranium
- Black Widow's Bite
- Hawkeye's Bow and Quiver
- Uru
- Asgardian Armor
- Iron Legion
- Veronica
- Captain America's Uniform
- Gamma Radiation
- Heroes of New York Action Figures
- Vulgarian Whisky
- The Nutcracker
- Hammer Drones (flashback)
- Red Ryder BB Gun (mentioned)
- Siri (mentioned)
Concepts[]
Vehicles[]
Sentient Species[]
Creatures[]
- Sparrows (mentioned)
- Puffins (mentioned)
- Turkeys (mentioned)
- Flamingos (mentioned)
- Parakeets (mentioned)
- Eagles (mentioned)
- Rats (mentioned)
Organizations[]
- Avengers
- Stark Industries
- S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Order of the Watchers
- Hammer Industries (flashback)
- Mechanical Science Quarterly (flashback)
- HYDRA (mentioned)
- United States Army (mentioned)
- Blockbuster Video (mentioned)
- WikiLeaks (mentioned)
- BBC (mentioned)
- Rolex (mentioned)
Mentioned[]
- Pepper Potts
- James Rhodes
- J.A.R.V.I.S.
- Bernard
- Justin Hammer's Parents
- Darcy Lewis' Father
- Laura Barton
- Nick Fury
- F.R.I.D.A.Y.
- W.A.D.S.W.O.R.T.H.
- E.D.I.T.H. 1.0
- Happy Hogan's Contacts
- Mariah Carey
- Reginald VelJohnson
- Hulk Hogan
- Santa Claus
- A Christmas Story
- Con Air
- Under Siege
- Die Hard
- John McClane
- Al Powell (indirectly)
- The Chronicles of Narnia
- Johnny 5
- Darth Vader
Music[]
| Song title | Artist | Location(s) |
|---|---|---|
| It Came Upon a Midnight Clear | Jerry Kalaf |
|
| Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky |
|
| Jingle Bells | Stan Reynolds |
|
| Deck the Halls | Braddy Ellis |
|
| Broadway Shing-A-Ling | Soul Blenders |
|
| Deck the Halls | Stan Reynolds |
|
| O Christmas Tree | Stuart Roslyn and Matthew Foundling |
|
| We Wish You a Merry Christmas | The Craig Gildner Sextet ft. Tony Liberto |
|
Videos[]
Clips[]
Trivia[]
- Happy Hogan's list of contacts includes names of several What If...? crew members, including A.C. Bradley, Matthew Chauncey and Graham Fisher, as well as the late Stan Lee.
- In the episode, Iron Man exclaims "Son of a nutcracker." which is a line directly lifted from the film Elf, which was directed by Jon Favreau.
- Towards the end of the episode's regular credits Darcy Lewis sings an impromptu Christmas ditty before wishing everyone Happy Holidays.
Behind the Scenes[]
- According to A.C. Bradley, the writing team considered paying tribute to some other Jon Favreau's projects in the episode, like The Chef Show or Elf, but ended up making it into a Die Hard homage.[1]
- This episode was developed following the creation of a Christmas episode for the first season of What If...? that was planned but never created.[2]
- A.C. Bradley said that this episode was her favorite of the second season of What If...? to write during the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdowns.[2]
References[]
External Links[]
What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas? on Wikipedia- What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas? on Marvel Database
- What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas? on IMDb
- What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas? on Disney+
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