"What If...?" Episode 2 - T'Challa as Star Lord

by Mike Lunsford, Editor-in-Chief of the Great Geek Refuge

SPOILERS ABOUND! BE WARNED.

Hello friends, and welcome to another recap/review of Disney Plus’ Marvel What If…? series. This week brings us another adventure from the MCU that retells a classic story that has been altered by one key event. Let’s jump right into the story.

We are on the surface of an abandoned planet named Morag. A masked man we all know to be Star Lord is there to retrieve the Orb (which we also know houses the Power Stone). However, when soldiers who work for Ronan the Accuser confront him, he takes off his mask to reveal the face of T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman)! He announces himself as Star Lord and instead of confused indifference, Korath (Djimon Hounsou) shows reverence. “OH, the great Star Lord! Should I bow or kneel?” Apparently, THIS Star Lord has an amazing reputation. We see Korath fight Star Lord begrudgingly (because it’s his job but he’s in awe the whole time). He even asks to join the Ravagers! After knocking him unconscious and defeating the other soldiers, Star Lord carries Korath out of the temple and takes him as a recruit. Outside the temple, a whole squad of soldiers stops Star Lord, but luckily Yondu and his magic arrow are there to save the day. The Ravagers fly off for more adventures throughout the galaxy! As we’ve learned about the What If…? universe, all these stories are similar, but slightly different. All it took was one small change in the series of events to change everything.

What was the event? Yondu and the Ravagers abduct a young child from Earth who becomes Star Lord. In the sacred timeline, it was Peter Quill, all because he was the child of Ego, a Celestial being bent on galactic domination through banging women across the galaxy, like Wilt Chamberlain with a space ship. However, this time around instead of taking young Peter, the Ravagers found their way to Wakanda and abducted the crown prince of Wakanda, young T’Challa.

Instead of capturing Quill himself, Yondu tasked his crew with bringing in the boy. They of course, bungle it and grab the wrong kid. To them, all humans look the same! “Two hear holes, two see holes and one food hole!” is what Kraglin hilariously says (Sean Gunn reprising his role from GotG and GotG II ). Yondu is angry but also notices that their new captive is not scared. He asks T’Challa why he was alone in the wild when they found him. He says “I was exploring the world!” Yondu sees a kindred spirit and offers T’Challa to explore the galaxy with them.

Instead of a blow-by-blow recap like I did with the Captain Carter episode, I’ll give a more high-level discussion for this one. Every interaction T’Challa has as the Ravager known as Star Lord is a positive one. This starts just from his reputation when he encounters Korath on Morag. We see it with the entire Ravager crew who all love him. Even Yondu, the notoriously rough-edged captain has softened because of T’Challa’s presence. The shocker of the episode: Thanos, the Mad Titan himself is a part of the Ravager crew. It’s not explained how, but Star Challa Lord was able to talk him out of his master plan to annihilate half of the life in the galaxy. It’s played as a joke as he even says “it’s not genocide because it’s random, and efficient.” OH HAHAHAHA, THANOS YOU RASCAL.” scruffs up hair What are we gonna do with you? cue laugh track There’s nothing funnier than a genocidal maniac who’s now a comrade! I get the point, that T’Challa is NOT Peter Quill and his spirit would have a much different impact on the galaxy, but man…Thanos??? All it took was a good speech from T’Challa to change his mind? OK. He must be one hell of a negotiator.

Additionally, we see Nebula (Karen Gillan) with long blonde hair and she seems to have quite a deal of affection for T’Challa (who she adorably calls “Cha Cha”). She’s also not nearly as murderous and angry as she was when we saw her last.

Nebula informs T’Challa of a new heist for his crew of Ravagers, after a hilarious interaction with Drax as a bartender (Fred Tatasciore fills in for Dave Bautista…not sure about the why, but we’ll talk about it on the podcast).

Nebula: They're called the Embers of Genesis. Nutrient-rich cosmic dust from an ancient supernova with the power to terraform entire ecosystems. With one ounce, you can heal a dying planet in minutes. And with a payload the size we're talking...

T’Challa: We could feed billions of people on millions of worlds and eradicate hunger across the galaxy.

Now, that does bring up a really interesting prospect: that could solve the whole Thanos thing. It proves that his plan could have worked, but if you got the capability to make sure everyone is fed without killing half the friggin’ galaxy wouldn’t that be better? To further discuss the Thanos turn, he and Nebula have a…begrudging respect for each other? It’s not sunshine and rainbows, but T’Challa says “I keep telling them they should get some therapy.” Again, this is showcasing his ability to give others hope and how he focuses on the good that can be done, but dude…he tortured Nebula and kept replacing her body parts with cybernetics to make her a better killer. There are some things that are beyond therapy, but I suppose that shows how convincing T’Challa can be when it comes to instilling hope in others.

Some of the other fun moments of this episode include a much more sinister role for Taneleer Tivan, the Collector. Let me run that back: dude was a slave owner, he was already pretty sinister. But now, other than just some creepy weirdo who has rooms and rooms of artifacts and lifeforms on display, he’s also a crime lord who filled the void left by Thanos. In fact, he’s employed the Black Order as his personal security detail. Another feather in the cap of the slave trader! Now he’s a creep with ambition! He’s also the owner of the Embers of Genesis.

The Ravagers concoct a scheme to get them from the Collector. Along the way, T’Challa runs into Howard the Duck (Seth Green) and he finds a Wakandan ship! While exploring that ship he finds a message from his father T’Chaka that showcases that he never stopped looking for his son.

Awwww…pops.

The remainder of the episode is exciting and manages to keep the same feel as The Guardians of the Galaxy: it’s a fun heist movie that has plenty of twists and turns with exciting action pieces throughout. In fact, the finale of the episode features a fight between T’Challa, Yondu and The Collector. It involved one of my favorite visuals of the episode as Yondu manages to get Tivan’s gauntlet off of his arm and Star’Challa does a Tony Jaa with a rocket boost to Tivan’s face.

IT EVEN HAS THE SPIT FLYING OUT OF HIS FACE!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. I loved the twists that these stories take with one butterfly-effect-type change. This episode was a ton of fun and had some great visual moments. However, I do want to mention some issues that I noticed. When we discussed the Captain Carter episode on the podcast, stalwart co-host James Rambo pointed out some of the animation issues. I noticed them this time around. There were many times that the lip-synch was off, what was being said by the voice actor did not match the character’s mouth. Additionally, there were scenes where the emotion didn’t match. One scene in particular where Yondu is stating how stupid their plan is has him sounding very agitated and angry but his animated character shows none of this emotion. I’m no animator, but there had to be better ways to showcase this as the expression on his face looked very flat.

Overall, this is still a huge win in my book. What If…? Star Lord Was T’Challa was a great twist on a fun story. Additionally, if you wondered if there were ramifications from Yondu and the Ravagers taking T’Challa instead of Peter Quill…I’ll let you watch. There are some surprises you need to see for yourself. As the episode plays out, the thought pops into your mind that this performance could be the last time you hear Chadwick Boseman in the MCU. There were a few lines that made me tear up, but this final title card hit me like a vibranium-infused punch to the gut:

Well crap, guess it’s really dusty in here.

What If…? has become appointment television for me. As soon as I wake up on Wednesday morning, I grab my laptop to watch the next episode. Sure, there are some animation issues here and there, but overall the stories are super fun and keep me wanting more. There are so many fun possibilities with the Marvel universe and the What If…? series has done and excellent job thus far. I can’t wait to see what’s next!