Disney+ has "multiple" Marvel Studios animated series in active development

Including a series of shorts following Baby Groot

Marvel Studios' 'What If...?' is the first in a long line of upcoming animated series based on their vast range of superheroes.

Setting it apart from all of the other Marvel animation creations that have come before it over the years, 'What If...?' is the first Disney+ animated series to be based within the MCU (but still, it's not strictly canon).

According to one of the executive producers over at Marvel Studios, the series, which debuted on Disney+ yesterday, is only the very beginning of their extensive plans.

Brad Winderbaum ('Black Widow') explained to Variety, that Disney+ and Marvel Studios have "multiple" animated series "in various phases of development" in the pipeline. As well as a second season of 'What If…?' already in active development, there's also a series of Baby Groot animation shorts on the way too. Animated shorts are a given on Disney+ these days, with examples like Maggie from 'The Simpsons' and Mr. Forky from 'Toy Story' having their own releases, so it's no surprise that Marvel would want to get in on the action too.

Brad went on to discuss the creative freedom that making an animated series allows: "We realized that there’s a lot of cool avenues you can explore with animation. Any project that we create is going to be something that needs to be animated in order for the story to be told. There’s very little desire to take a piece of IP that’s popular because we’re coming out with a movie and just make an animated show about it. We’re not going to do that."

At the moment, there are no plans for an animated feature film within the MCU (leaving it to Sony to deliver with their 'Spider-Verse' franchise instead).

The first episode of 'What If...?' launched this week on Disney+ to generally positive reviews. One of the writers of the series, A.C. Bradley, revealed that one of their early Spider-Man concepts didn't make it past Disney's PG-13 firewall as it was deemed "too body horror".

Now, who do we have to beg in order to get word on the rumoured new 'X-Men' animated series?