Disney+ Unveils T’Challa as Star-Lord in Marvel’s What If…?

The Black Panther, King T’Challa of Wakanda, becomes the legendary outlaw Star-Lord in an episode of Marvel’s What If…? Disney+ series. The Marvel Expanding the Universe special available on Disney+ offers a preview of what Marvel Studios has in store for Disney’s new streaming service. It includes footage first shown at D23 from Marvel Studios‘ first animated series, What If…? In the tradition of the long-running Marvel Comics series, the show imagines how a story from the Marvel Cinematic Universe would change if one thing went a different way. The footage includes a shot of T’Challa dressed as Star-Lord, seemingly from an episode imagining an alternate version of Guardians of the Galaxy or Black Panther.

It isn’t clear what the What If…? question that leads this change is. What if Yondu kidnapped T’Challa from Earth instead of Peter Quill? What if Wakanda went to space? Fans will have to wait and see to find out.

Showrunner Ashley Bradley discussed this episode fo the show in an interview earlier this year. “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.

“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. 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.”

What do you think of T’Challa becoming Star-Lord? Let us know in the comments.

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in spring 2021, Loki in spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If? In summer 2021, Hawkeye in fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk are also in the works for Disney+.