What If…? “What If… T’Challa Became Star-Lord?”

Season 1 Episode 2 “What would have happened if T’Challa and not Peter Quill was picked up by Yondu as a child and became Star-Lord.”

What I Liked?

1. The Watcher takes us to a timeline in where Ego sent Yondu and the Ravagers on a mission to Earth to pick up his son, Peter Quill, however, Yondu tasked this mission to Kraglin and Taserface who go to Earth and end up picking up a little T’Challa who has left the boards of Wakanda to go retrieve his spear, T’Challa tells Yondu that he wants to explore the world, so Yondu tells him he’ll show him the universe and off they go.

2. The opening scene of Guardians of the Galaxy 1 plays out just replaced Peter with T’Challa and instead of no one knowing who Star-Lord is, T’challa has helped many people so he’s recognized immediately by Korath who pretty much fanboys over T’Challa, they get into a fight which Korath absolutely loves, T’Challa takes out many alien soldiers and goes outside carrying a knocked out Korath, T’Challa introduces Yondu who clears everyone else with his whistle weapon.

3. My next point is the different versions of the characters we know, like Drax as a bartender who still has his family, Nebula who has blonde hair and is known as “heist Nebula”, and of course, the Mad Titan himself, who has been swayed to be a somewhat good guy by T’Challa, just so unique to see.

4. T’Challa is in the middle of pulling a job stealing from the Collector when he stumbles upon a Wakandan ship in the Collectors collection, he enters the ship and gets shown a message from his father, King T’Chaka. This was such an emotional scene for a lot of reasons I could get into but the main one was seeing the emotion in the voice actor who T’Chaka.

5. Something I thought we would never get to see, Thanos vs The Black Order, such a great fight, Thanos held his own against Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian and held his own for a little while until the brutal side of Proxima came into play which caused Nebula to help Thanos and they both make an escape.

6. As much as the episode focused on a story about T’Challa being Star-Lord, it was nice to see Peter Quill show up at the end as a Fast Food worker when he meets Ego, his father. A small detail that they could have easily left out but didn’t.

What I Disliked?

Absolutely nothing.

Favorite Moment

My favorite moment was the entire fight between T’Challa and the Collector, the Collector was using weapons from previous villains to attack T’Challa, but it was all even when Yondu showed up with his whistle weapon, returning to save his “son”.

Standout Character

T’Challa receives this award this week, this character mixed with Star-Lord was brought to life by Chadwick Boseman and it was done incredibly well, each scene he was in he stole.

The Verdict

A really hard, emotional, and amazing episode of What If…? this week, a story about T’Challa replacing Peter Quill is something unique and only made real by the passion and heart of Chadwick Boseman giving the voiceover. This entire story was amazing, and I absolutely loved that one simple change, which changed reality for the best. I don’t think I can move on without mentioning the heartbreaking tribute to Chadwick at the end of the episode.

Rating: 10/10

Photo: T’Challa as Star-Lord, What If…?.