Disney+ and Marvel’s new animated series What If…? reimagines key moments from the MCU in a new context, and the latest episode features the final performance from Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa from Black Panther.
Wednesday’s episode explores the idea of T’Challa taking on the title Star-Lord after he was abducted from Wakanda at an early age, offering a distinctive mix of Black Panther and the outer-space adventures of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Boseman recorded all of his dialogue for the project before his death at age 43 in August 2020, making it his final appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and his final role overall.
The Oscar nominee also recorded some lines for other episodes in the series, but the second episode puts his character in the spotlight.
As a result of having a different upbringing, T’Challa as Star-Lord is somewhat different from the attitude the character had in Black Panther and other MCU projects. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige even suggested Boseman’s work on the series was set to have an impact on his role in the upcoming sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
“We didn’t know it would be his final performance,” said Feige in a conversation with Variety. “He came in, numerous times, and was so gung-ho about it, was so excited about it. Somebody [has] probably spoken about this already, but he came in, he read the episode that airs 24 hours from now and then came back and said, ‘I really love this version of T’Challa.’ We had a conversation with Ryan [Coogler] about how do we get some of this voice, not the storyline, into Black Panther 2.”
Check out what fans had to say below.
