With this week’s ninth episode of “What If?” the MCU’s first animated adventure said goodbye to Season 1. But never fear, the multiversal series is set to return for Season 2 soon enough. But what fans probably didn’t know is that there was another animated series that had been in the early stages of development that would have served as a “What If?” spinoff series, but unfortunately, those plans were derailed after the surprising passing of Chadwick Boseman.
According to an interview with Variety, “What If?” director Bryan Andrews revealed that Chadwick Boseman would have voiced his Star-Lord T’Challa character (introduced in “What If?” Episode 2) in a spinoff series that would have explored the character even more. Unfortunately, the tragic passing of Boseman prevented that from happening.
“Chadwick had recorded his Star-Lord T’Challa stuff early,” explained Andrews. “But we had those later episodes that he appeared in sporadically, and it was a long stretch before we got him [again]. And it was not long after the final recording that he passed. I think it was maybe just a few months, or a month. None of us knew, obviously. But we got him in time to have everything . I think he was also trying to make an effort because T’Challa was so important to him — and also this new version of Star-Lord T’Challa was so important to him. He dug it.”
He added, “I don’t know if he knew this, but there was planning to have Star-Lord T’Challa spin off into his own show with that universe and crew. We were all very excited. We know he would have loved it, too. And then, you know, he passed, and so all that’s in limbo. So, who knows? Maybe one day.”
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One of the best (and most emotional) aspects of “What If?” is that the series serves as Boseman’s final performance as T’Challa in the MCU. However, it is heartening to know that he seemingly enjoyed doing the voice work for his multiversal characters. Unfortunately, Season 1 marks the end of Boseman’s involvement, and much like the live-action “Black Panther” franchise, we’ll have to wait and see how Marvel Studios handles that moving forward.
The first season of “What If?” is available to stream now on Disney+.
