WHIH Newsfront

Format and premise

The series presents itself as bulletins from WHIH World News, a television network that recurs across MCU properties, covering political, scientific, and entertainment events inside the shared fictional universe.⁵ Episodes are short, between 30 seconds and 3 minutes, and mix studio segments, interviews, and breaking-news reports.¹ The videos were supplemented by posts on faux WHIH social media channels, an approach intended to broaden reach and blur the line between fiction and reality.⁶ Marvel developed the series in partnership with Google.⁷

Season 1: Ant-Man (2015)

The five first-season episodes ran in July 2015, in the weeks before Ant-Man reached theaters.⁸ After a promo and a top-stories roundup, the series claimed to have obtained security footage of the 2012 VistaCorp break-in by cyber-criminal Scott Lang, aired a WIRED Insider interview with Darren Cross, CEO of Pym Technologies, and closed with a satellite interview with Lang from San Quentin prison.⁸ Paul Rudd and Corey Stoll appeared as their film characters.²

The season also did world-building beyond the film it promoted. Using the fallout of Avengers: Age of Ultron, it began establishing the idea of superhero regulation, and its news ticker referenced characters and events from across the franchise, from Tony Stark's public statements about Bruce Banner to an interview with Stephen Strange and the Watchdogs' actions on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.⁹

Season 2: Captain America: Civil War (2016)

The second season, from April 22 to May 3, 2016, framed the debate over government oversight of the Avengers that drives Captain America: Civil War. Episodes included a special report titled "AVENGERS IMPACT", a discussion of who should pay for the cleanup and rebuilding after superhero battles, a debate on the White House's role, and an exclusive interview with President Matthew Ellis, again played by William Sadler, in which he discussed nominating Thaddeus Ross as Secretary of State.^{8 • 10} The final episode, "WHIH Breaking News: Attack in Lagos", went live with breaking coverage of the attack in Lagos, Nigeria, the incident that opens the film, with field reporter Jackson Norris among those covering it.^{8 • 2}