What If Episode 2 called What If… T’Challa Became a Star-Lord is now out on Disney Plus. The episode has a runtime of 32 minutes.
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What If Episode 2 Cast
Chadwick Boseman, Michael Yonker, Karen Gillan, Josh Brolin, Djimon Hounsou, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Gunn, Chris Sullivan, Seth Green, John Kani, and Kurt Russell
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What If Episode 2 Writer
Matthew Chauncey
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What If Episode 2 Director
Bryan Andrews
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What If Episode 2: Plot Summary
The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) starts the episode again by saying how time, space and reality are prisms of endless possibilities. For today’s episode on T’Challa (played by the late Chadwick Boseman), The Watcher says, “The galaxy , to your eyes, a hundred billion points of light. But where you see light, I see worlds and countless stories that fill them. But in a Multiverse of infinite possibilities, if your destiny determined by your nature or by the nature of your world?”
What If…? Episode 2 begins with T’Challa, aka Star-Lord stealing the Orb but Korath and his men stop him. In Guardians of The Galaxy, Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord dances his way to steal the Orb, but T’Challa does nothing like that. Korath has a major fan moment when he sees T’Challa. Also, the Star-Lord in Marvel’s animated series is humble and doesn’t brag about being the ‘Star-Lord’.
We see some cool moments between Yondu (voiced by Michael Rooker) and Star-Lord T’Challa as they fight the army of enemy aliens. We find out that Thanos dropped his plans to wipe half the galaxy’s population because T’Challa explained that there are better ways. They all are friends and have drinks together. Nebula (Karen Gillan) looks stunning and decides to plan a mission with T’Challa to fight The Collector (Benicio Del Toro)
We also see T’Challa’s back story at Wakanda, where he tells his father T’Chaka about exploring the world. T’Chaka tells him that the world outside is bad and doesn’t let him explore. But nothing can stop destiny as the Ravagers abduct T’Challa instead of Peter Quill.
What If Episode 2 Review: Discussion
I love Chris Pratt’s pompous and slightly insecure Star-Lord in GoTG. But I also enjoyed Chadwick’s humble, sensible and sorted Star-Lord in What If. The episode looks striking at the beginning because of the scenes between T’Challa-Thanos, T’Challa-Nebula and T’Challa-Yondu. However later, the story falls flat.
I wish Star-Lord T’Challa were given a more compelling mission than what we saw in the episode. The makers had a chance to focus on how T’Challa convinced Thanos not to commit genocide instead of using this information merely for dialogues. After all, Marvel made lots of money and hooked the audience for years with the Infinity saga — Thanos arc.
Also Read: All What If Season 1 Reviews
Thankfully, there are some bits I truly enjoyed. There are some parallels/easter eggs from various MCU movies. Watching Thanos as a good guy and Nebula not getting tortured is a relief. Hearing Chadwick Boseman’s voice as T’Challa, aka Star-Lord, again is painfully beautiful. There’s nothing Boseman cannot do, and that’s why his loss feels personal every time I watch his work.
The visuals of the galaxy and animation in today’s episode were mind-blowing. Some scenes looked magical, and I wished I were watching them on the big screen.
Final Thoughts
What If… T’Challa Became a Star-Lord and had a lot of potential. As The Watcher says – there are endless possibilities. I wish the one with T’Challa could’ve been better. The end credit scene serves as a good tease for what’s next!
What If…? Episode 2 is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
Also Read: All What If Season 2 Reviews