Jon Favreau, the filmmaker who launched the MCU with Iron Man and Iron Man 2, also took on the role of Happy Hogan in the MCU. He returned to reprise his role in the first season of Marvel’s What If…? animated series and he will be back in Season 2!
Happy Hogan actually got his own episode in Season 2 titled “What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?,” the synopsis of which reads, “Iron Man’s errand boy is the only thing standing between Tony Stark’s old nemesis Justin Hammer and his siege on Avengers Tower during the heroes’ annual holiday party.”
During a panel at a press conference for What If…?, creator A.C. Bradley talked about bringing Favreau on board to play Happy Hogan again, and revealed the one request the actor and director made when he came in to record his lines for Season 1, saying that in Season 2 “I want to be The Freak.” Bradley said:
“The second season, we knew we wanted to do a Darcy episode and sort of had that in our back pocket. And then Jon Favreau, I’m allowed to tell this story. First of all, he’s amazing. He’s one of the absolute nicest human beings and most talented human beings […] and so when he came in to do season 1, he kind of jokingly made a deal. He’s like, ‘I’ll do season 1, but season 2, I get to headline. And I want to be The Freak.'”
In case you don’t know, Happy Hogan became known as The Freak after he was blasted by the Enervator ray machine, which mutated him into a giant, savage, nearly mindless, superhumanly strong humanoid. Bradley admitted that she had never heard of The Freak before, and she said:
“We’re like, ‘Oh no, what are we [agreeing] to?’ And then as we were talking about the episode, we’re like, ‘Let’s make it an ode to Mr. Favreau.’ And we started looking at his amazing movies. And we even had a little mention of ‘The Chef Show’ in there […] and we were looking at ‘Elf,’ and were like, ‘No, we can’t do ‘Elf.’ Let’s do ‘Die Hard.” Which is my favorite movie from childhood. Absolutely. I memorized it, I think, by the time I hit 10 years old.”
So, Happy Hogan’s story in What If…? is very much an homage to Die Hard as Happy crawling around in the ventilation shafts of Stark Tower. We’ll just have to wait and see how his transformation into The Freak plays out in the story! This will be a fun episode to watch!
In What If…? Season 2, “The Watcher continues the journey as our guide through the vast multiverse, introducing brand-new and familiar faces throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The animated anthology series questions, revisits and twists classic Marvel Cinematic moments with an incredible voice cast that includes a host of stars who reprise their iconic roles.”
What If…? season 2 premieres December 22, 2023, on Disney+.
Source: /Film
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