In which What If…? shows how the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be better off if T’Challa had been Star-Lord… or is it?
During the marketing of Disney Plus‘ What If…?, one of the more provocative images shown in the trailers was what appeared to be Star-Lord stealing the Orb off the planet Morag, only to reveal T’Challa under the mask. What made this even more compelling is that T’Challa would be voiced by the same actor who played him in the movies, Chadwick Boseman. As Boseman tragically died from cancer last year, this meant this episode would be one of his last performances.
Thus “What If… T’Challa Became a Star-Lord?” became a worthy tribute to both Boseman and the Black Panther despite T’Challa not being the Black Panther. It also meant seeing a Marvel Cinematic Universe even more different than what we saw in the debut, which also means more potential Easter Eggs for us to find. But how does this second episode of What If…? compare with what happened in the actual Marvel Cinematic Universe? And would the once and future king of Wakanda really become an interstellar outlaw?
Nature or Nurture?
The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) opens this episode by asking a variation of the most hotly debated question in all of psychology: “Is your destiny determined by your nature, or by the nature of your world?” Based on T’Challa’s actions throughout this episode, “What If… T’Challa Became a Star-Lord?” falls squarely into the “Nature” camp.
Yet we also see that T’Challa still lived his first eight-to-ten years growing up as the crown prince of Wakanda, so it’s clear that he already had the same values and moral principles as his MCU counterpart. So the real question isn’t “Nature vs. Nurture?” It’s the same as it always is with every What If…? “Would events really have happened this way if [insert X scenario here] happened?”
Thus, in order to set T’Challa on the path of becoming the Robin Hood of outer space, the writers instill young T’Challa (Maddix Robinson) with a desire “to explore the world” outside of Wakanda. Except, if you go back through the four movies T’Challa appeared in (Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame) we never saw any hint that T’Challa was ever like this as a kid. And would he really be okay with going off with a bunch of bumbling aliens who just kidnapped him?
Speaking of the Ravagers, it seems the other variant in this timeline is that Yondu (Michael Rooker) outsourced the task of finding Peter Quill (Brian T. Delaney) to his subordinates instead of doing so himself. Hence why they pick up T’Challa instead because, according to Taserface (Chris Sullivan) and Kraglin (Sean Gunn), “All humans look alike.” That and they picked up the enegry signature from Wakanda’s vast quantities of Vibranium, assuming that was Quill’s Celestial energy signature. Not only is this funny, it does seem rather true to character given how the Ravagers were portrayed in the Guardians of the Galaxy films. Though they could’ve just dropped T’Challa off with a “No hard feelings, kid,” and be on their way, I suppose.
Thanos the superhero?!
One quality which made T’Challa a different Star-Lord than Peter Quill that the episode kept repeating was his ability to persuade even the most hardened evil-doer. He reformed his own kidnappers, the Ravagers, into becoming his own band of Merry Men (with Yondu still having all his original teeth, to boot). He also recruits Korath the Pursurer (Djimon Hounsou), who was already his biggest fan. But the biggest surprise of all is that he somehow convinced Thanos (Josh Brolin) to abandon his quest to eliminate half of all life in the universe, become a fellow Ravager, and also make amends with his adoptive daughter, Nebula (Karen Gillan).
That’s right: Thanos, the Mad Titan, intergalactic despot and future wielder of the Infinity Gauntlet, is a reformed good guy in this alternate Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s certainly off-the-wall, but not as implausible or unheard-of as you might think. Crazy it might sound, this isn’t the first time Thanos has been depicted being on the side of the heroes. As a matter of fact, it happened more than once in mainstream comic book continuity.
First there’s the sequel to 1991’s The Infinity Gauntlet miniseries from which the third Avengers movie got it’s subtitle from, The Infinity War. There, a retired Thanos teams up with various superheroes to prevent the universe from being overrun by evil dopplegangers. Not long afterwards, he was instrumental in curing Thor after the Asgardian became inflicted with “warrior madness.” He even tried to save an alien race, whose previous planet he destroyed, from having their new planet be eaten by Galactus. Thanos even helped to save the universe he once tried to destroy and remake in his image during the 2006 comic book event, Annihilation.
As for ever having a (somewhat) healthy relationship with less cybernetic Nebula? Well, that definitely never came to pass in the comics. And the episode also shows that there are consequences in having a reformed Thanos, too.
The Collector’s Collection
It seems space also abhors a vacuum as much as nature does. One of the unforeseen effects in T’Challa having Thanos turn over a new leaf is that it allowed another would-be tyrant to take his place. That person wound up being Taneleer Tivan, a.k.a. The Collector (Benicio Del Toro). He even has the Black Order under his employ, the better to expand his already large menagerie of alien specimens and artifacts.
Some of his captives are those we’ve already seen before in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) such as Cosmo the Spacedog, one of the Dark Elves from Thor: The Dark World (2013), and, of course, Howard the Duck (Seth Green). But there are now new items in The Collector’s vault. These include:
- The Milano. Peter Quill’s original starship. This makes perfect sense considering how Quill never became Star-Lord in this universe.
- The Asis. The experimental shuttle from Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. piloted by Carol Danvers. As it ended up being destroyed during it’s test flight in Captain Marvel (2016), this suggests the Collector went to Earth and stole it before it ever took off.
- An X-Wing fighter. Which means I guess makes Star Wars a part of the MCU, even though there the Star Wars movies as we know them also existed. But seriously, it’s because Disney owns both Marvel and Lucasfilm.
- A Star Blaster. The attack fighters used by the Nova Corps as seen in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Not exactly hard for the Collector to have gotten his hands on one since we see the Nova Corps is still quite active in this timeline.
- The Commodore. The ship once owned by the Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). Originally, this was stolen by Thor, Loki, and Valkyrie. In this timeline, it seems the Collector took it from the Grandmaster, who is, in fact, his own brother.
- The Statesman. Another ship that used to belong to the Grandmaster, which also appeared in Thor: Ragnarok. In the original timeline, it was used to shuttle the Asgardian refugees and ended up being destroyed by Thanos at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War.
- The Ship used by Scott Lang, Hank Pym, and Hope van Dyne to rescue Janet van Dyne from the Quantum Realm. Probably stole this during another trip to Earth, and did so well before the events of both Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018).
- The hand of a “a terribly chatty Kronan.” Or more likely Korg’s hand. That’s right, the Collector apparently murdered Thor’s buddy.
- Captain America’s Shield. And considering how this episode of What If…? takes place during 2008, that means the Collector found it in the Arctic Circle before S.H.I.E.L.D. recovered and thawed out Steve Rogers.
- Mjolnir. Yes, apparently the Collector was able to defeat Thor in this universe, likely with the help of the Black Order.
- The Cosmi-Rod. The oversized two-handed warhammer wielded by Ronan the Accuser. Considering how we learn that, in this universe, Ronan and his Kree forces were defeated by T’Challa when they invaded Kylos – which also meant Drax’s wife and daughter survived – it’s likely the Collector picked this up afterwards.
- Malekith’s Dagger. The weapon used by the main villain from Thor: The Dark World. The only way the Collector might have gotten a hold of this is if he and the Black Order found the spacecraft in which Malekith and his dark elves were hibernating for the last several centuries, and definitely before the Aether woke them up.
- Hela’s helmet. Which, as we see, also gives whoever wears it the ability to use Hela’s “necroswords.” That the Collector and his forces were able to slay the Asgardian Goddess of Death in this timeline suggests that all the Asgardians have been slaughtered.
All of these are indeed some nifty MCU Easter Eggs, and it makes T’Challa’s victory over the Collector even that much more impressive. But it also highlights one rather disturbing aspect about this universe that was masked behind an otherwise comical heist story.
What the ending actually means
Two events happen at the end of this episode. T’Challa returns to Earth and Wakanda, reuniting with his mother and father… and Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell) also arrives on Earth to meet his now adult son, Peter Quill – who works at the very Dairy Queen where Ego planted his seedling for the Expansion. The Watcher just causally remarks that this “probably means the end of world, but that’s a story for another time.” Except, when you consider the state of this universe, there’s no “probably” about this.
If you recall his villainous monologue from Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (2017), the Expansion is what Ego called the terraforming of another planet to essentially replicate himself. Ego needs the DNA from another Celestial like himself in order to complete the process. And Quill was the only one of Ego’s many, many offspring to have that DNA.
Now the reason this plan ultimately failed is because of Quill’s affection for his new family, his fellow Guardians of the Galaxy. Unfortunately, Quill never met Drax, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot because, of course, he remained behind on Earth. Furthermore, as we see throughout this episode, those remaining Guardians never came together as a team. Gamora is notably absent, suggesting Thanos’ conversion happened before he invaded her planet and took her in as his own daughter. Thus it looks like Quill will now be completely under his father’s sway.
Want more bad news? Notice that “What If… T’Challa Became a Star-Lord” takes place in 2008, the same year as the first Iron Man movie. That’s also four years before the events of the first Avengers movie. Since Thanos was behind the Chitauri attack on New York – which is what helped bring the Avengers together – that won’t ever happen in this timeline. Also, based on the items in the Collector’s weapon cache, Steve Rogers is still frozen and Thor (along with his fellow Asgardians) is likely dead.
Even worse, Stephen Strange hasn’t yet become the Sorcerer Supreme. Peter Parker doesn’t get bit by the radioactive spider for another seven years. Bruce Banner is still on the run from the US military. And you might as well forget about the late-to-the-party non-interventionists known as the Eternals. In short, T’Challa’s good deeds have inadvertently resulted in a MCU without many of its heroes, and those who do exist will be too late to prevent Earth’s destruction. Good thing King T’Chaka (John Cani) ordered Wakanda to build interstellar spaceships to look for his son, I suppose.
It’s also possible we haven’t seen the last of T’Challa Star-Lord on What If…? either. Just as it’s also possible we haven’t seen the last of Captain Carter. After all, it’s believed that various characters from different What If…? episodes will end up being brought together somehow. Until then, we’ll continue scouting for clues in a episode which promises to be a murder mystery.
Was there any other Easter Eggs or clues in What If…? episode 2 that you spotted that we may have missed? Let us know what they are in the comments below.