In Review: Marvel’s What If…? (S1 – EP2) What If… T’Challa Became a Star-Lord?

Synopsis: What would have happened if T’Challa and not Peter Quill was picked up by Yondu as a child and became Star-Lord.

The Story

Having seen an alternative origin story for Captain America in last week’s episode, which featured Captain Carter. This week is the turn of T’Challa aka The  Black Panther to get an alternative story.

In this version of events, T’Challa becomes Star-Lord instead of Peter Quill. And it is all thanks to a case of mistaken identity due to Yondu’s men not being too bright. As a result of this twist in the tale. Yondu and his Ravengers become intergalactic Robin Hoods thanks to the pure-hearted T’Challa and his sense of social justice. As such Star-Lord has become a much-loved folk hero even amongst his rivals.

When Nebula comes to T’Challa with a plan to steal some mystical embers that can terraform planets from The Collector. T’Challa is more than happy to go along in the hopes of helping the Galaxy become a fairer and nicer place.

Voice Acting

This episode is rather bittersweet because it features the final ever performance of Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa. And the performance that he gives us here only further reiterates what a sad and tragic loss Boseman was to humanity. Indeed my first memory of seeing Boseman act in anything was in the movie ’42’ in which he played baseball legend, Jackie Robinson. It’s amazing to think that it would only be a few more years before he becomes a superhero.

Boseman puts in a great performance and I loved the scenes and interactions that he shares with Michael Rooker’s Yondu. I also enjoyed the different take that Josh Brolin gets to give us on Thanos who in this version of events was talked out of his plan by T’Challa.

Overall

This is quite a bittersweet episode of What If…? That plays things for laughs. I mean Thanos telling everyone about how he was talked out of his plan. Then insisting that his plan would have worked was perhaps one of the best jokes. I also quite enjoyed the different take we get on Nebula. But it’s Boseman’s presence in this episode that really makes it memorable. And I’m really grateful that he got this chance to reprise T’Challa before his tragic passing last year.