What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?

Fitting farewell to chadwick boseman. Loved djimon hounsou's character here.

Broadcast almost a year after the death of Chadwick Boseman.

The episode comes across like an unexpected and a surprise gift. More Boseman as T'Challa.

Just what if T'Challa and not Peter Quill was taken by Yondu and became a Ravager.

The prince of Wakanda still becomes a legend. A Starlord everyone respects and admires. The Ravagers are a force for good.

Even Thanos turns his back on committing genocide. All courtesy of T'Challa and his optimistic outlook in life.

This is a lighthearted fun animated adventure as T'Challa takes on the Collector for a valuable artefact.

It is a heist episode with triple crosses and family reunions. If you run out of luck, then go find a duck.

Plot

The rough-and-tumble space pirates known as the Ravagers abduct T'Challa instead of Peter Quill.

Cast

The usual array of MCU cast names, and I still find it impressive they're almost all involved in this.

Verdict

I'm saddened to admit I'm only just getting round to What If? I 'd been looking forward to it from the moment I heard it was announced but alas my never ending abyssal watchlist is merciless.

Two episodes now in and after a lacklustre start I find myself pondering, is this it? You see this episode isn't bad, it's just distinctly average. It's less like an addition to the MCU and more like a high budget Saturday morning cartoon with an outstanding voice cast.

T'Challa becoming Star Lord is certainly not one I'd have had on my bingo card and isn't entirely terrible but it didn't seem to really make for much of a story.

It's well made, kinda sweet and has a remarkable amount of easter eggs but overall I walked away very underwhelmed.

Rants

So Howard the Duck appeared again, you reckon he'll ever get another live action film? The original often comes up on Worst Movie Ever lists and I'll never fathom why. I mean for a start such people need to watch more movies if they think that's truly bad, where is The Zombinator (2012) when they're making these lists I ask you? And second, it's not that bad. It's cheesy, it's goofy, it's very questionable in places but if you just take your brain out it makes for a passable dumb movie viewing with a well above par cast.

The Good

A lot of easter eggs An interesting enough premise Incredible voice cast

The Bad

Not overly engaging Feels like the MCU but with kid gloves on.

This was decent & better than the first episode. Some character appearences really surprised me. The problem is with the pacing of the episode- 8 think it should be longer, to allow a deeper exploration of each world. Heck, I wouldn't mind if every episode was 2 hours long.

Still waiting for the overarching story to pick up.

A mostly uninteresting episode with a freezing storyline, weak logic and some ounces of development. As a standalone episode, it doesn't impress at all and no thrill is felt whatsoever.

The rating goes to the animation and voice-overs. RIP Chadwick Boseman. You personified T'Challa and the Black Panther so well.