What If… T’Challa Became a Star-Lord? has much more fun with the cosmic canvas of the MCU

Where WHAT IF…CAPTAIN CARTER WERE THE FIRST AVENGER? may have changed up the shades but stuck to colouring inside the lines, WHAT IF…T’CHALLA BECAME A STAR-LORD? grabs a handful of crayons and gleefully scribbles all over the cosmic history of the MCU as we know it.

Mistaking the Wakandan Vibranium lode as a sign of alien energy, the Ravagers abduct a young T’Challa instead of Peter Quill. Taking the young prince under his wing, Yondu offers T’Challa the irresistible chance to explore endless galaxies. As a result, T’Challa’s benign influence changes the cosmic destiny of the universe.

Boasting a cast almost as star-laden as its cosmic backdrops, WHAT IF…T’CHALLA BECAME A STAR-LORD? sees virtually everyone from the AVENGERS: ENDGAME, BLACK PANTHER and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 (the most notable absentee of the characters featured is Dave Bautista as Drax, replaced here by Fred Tatasciore) return for this do-over but all eyes – or at least ears – are on the late and sorely lamented Chadwick Boseman in what turns out to be his final performance. And what a performance it is, a performance in service of a story which shows how the character he personified becomes a fulcrum upon which the balance of the universe tilts towards the good. T’Challa’s intelligence, wisdom and innate nobility even manage to turn not only the Ravagers into t a force for good but even the grand villain of the Infinity Saga himself, Thanos, into a – well, not quite a good guy but certainly a much, much better guy.

As befits its setting in the GUARDIANS portion of the MCU, WHAT IF…T’CHALLA BECAME A STAR-LORD? is an altogether more tongue-in-cheek affair, so of course, there’s a bigger role for Seth Green’s Howard The Duck and a beautifully judged inversion of Peter Quill’s unwanted anonymity as Korath (Djimon Hounsou) relentlessly fanboys out over meeting T’Challa, his hero Star-Lord.

There’s also more of a sense here that the series isn’t just playing around with alternatives and variants of the story we know and love but that it’s building to something itself. Nothing explicit, but a definite sense of more story to tell as the episode draws to a close. The second episode of WHAT IF…? has turned last week’s “so what?” into “what’s next”?

8/10