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When T’Challa becomes Star-Lord in What If…?, that leaves Peter Quill to a much different, less heroic fate.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for What If…? Season 1, Episode 2, “What If… T’Challa Became a Star-Lord,” streaming now on Disney+.
What If…?, the latest Disney+ series to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, gives fans a glimpse into what the world would look like with some slight alterations, starting with Peggy Carter becoming a super soldier rather than Steve Rogers. Meanwhile, Episode 2 explores a timeline in which T’Challa takes on the role of Star-Lord instead of Peter Quill.
In the Sacred Timeline, Peter Quill was captured by Yondu. Though he had been sent to deliver Peter to his father, Ego, Yondu discovered that Ego was murdering his offspring, so he opted to raise Peter himself. Peter grew up amongst the Ravagers, with Yondu becoming a father figure to him. He then took on the outlaw name Star-Lord, a nickname given to him by his mother before she died. Eventually, he became a core member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. However, What If…? posits a timeline with a different Star-Lord and a very different fate for Peter Quill.
In Episode 2, Yondu is still tasked with retrieving Peter Quill for Ego; however, he chooses to outsource the job to some of his cronies. The cosmic readings from the Vibranium meteorite beneath the surface of Wakanda lead them there, and as all humans look the same to aliens, they snatch up the first kid they see, presuming him to be Peter Quill. Instead, they pick up T’Challa, who chooses to stay with the Ravagers.
Growing up without the weight of being the Black Panther, T’Challa remains his grounded self, but there is a new lightheartedness to him. The audience is introduced to this timeline’s T’Challa in the same way that Peter Quill was first introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy: on Morag preparing to steal the orb. Unlike Peter Quill, when T’Challa reveals he is Star-Lord, Korath is aware of the Robin Hood-esque outlaw. T’Challa’s Star-Lord is known throughout the galaxy and is a great hero of this universe who saves worlds.
The final scene reveals a less exciting fate of Peter Quill on this timeline. Without the Ravagers and his life as an outlaw traveling through the stars, Quill was never given the opportunity to become something more, staying in Missouri and working at a Dairy Queen.
It is dark in this empty shop as an adult Peter Quill mops the floor. He is the epitome of ordinary, in stark contrast to the cosmic adventures that T’Challa had in his place. If Yondu never took Peter Quill away from his home, Peter would have been a nobody.
However, there is still hope that his life could take a more heroic turn. The final beat of the episode sees an animated Kurt Russell stepping inside the Dairy Queen as Ego, finally claiming his long lost son. Perhaps this scene is setting up another What If…? story, and who knows how this version of Peter will fare against his celestial father.
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