What If…? Episode to Feature Black Panther Leading the Guardians of the Galaxy

The new Marvel Studios series What If…? will be a first for the superhero powerhouse when it premieres on the Disney+ streaming service, not only because it will feature major twists on the movies we know and love but because it’s the company’s first foray into animation. This affords the unlimited imagination that the medium allows without having to worry about budgets, while including the original actors who will reprise their iconic roles. And now showrunner Ashley Bradley is revealing new details about the upcoming series, including an episode that will see Black Panther become the leader of the Guardians Of The Galaxy.

Bradley spoke with Discussing Film about the series, teasing an episode of What If…? where T’Challa end up as Star-Lord.

“On the reel [shown at D23], there is this image of a Star-Lord T’Challa because we wanted to see what if the worlds of Black Panther and the Guardians of the Galaxy collided,” explained Bradley. “That was taking two universes, two to three movies, kind of twisting them in new ways.”

She went on to say that fans received some epic moments in Avengers: Endgame that showed some of their favorite characters interacting for the first time, and What If…? will continue to follow down that path.

“With Star-Lord T’Challa obviously, we want to know how T’Challa ended up in other planets? What’s the story there? It’s super exciting to work on because again, it’s seeing these characters and seeing the combination of character interactions,” Bradley added. “Seeing the Avengers hang out together and more recently Endgame gave us the fun of seeing something like Ant-Man hanging out with the Hulk. What If…? is taking it a step further.”

The showrunner previously explained that she originally wanted to do an episode where Jane Foster became Thor but was quickly shut down by Marvel.

“Our first weeks there I very strongly pitched doing The Mighty Thor- Jane Foster Thor. Jane wielding the hammer, I believe first happened in a What If comic,” Bradley said. “I was very poignantly told that was never going to happen. I got a little angry and thought, ‘Why, because they don’t want a woman holding the hammer?’ I was very politely told, ‘No we’re doing it.’ I was like what? ‘We’re doing it in the movies. You can’t do it.’ I was like, seriously? They responded with, ‘Please don’t tell anyone. We’re with you on it, it’s an amazing idea. Taika Waititi wants to write it.’ At that point, you just go ‘Then Taika Waiti can write it!’”

What If…? does not yet have a release date for Disney+.