The most anticipated episode of Marvel’s Disney+ animated series What If…? was the episode featuring Chadwick Boseman’s last performance as T’Challa before his death in 2020 from colon cancer.
Comic Book reported that before Boseman’s passing, Marvel was working on developing a What If…? spinoff based on T’Challa, who becomes Star Lord in the speculative Marvel series. As Comic Book quoted from Variety, director Bryan Andrews revealed how “excited” he was to have Boseman come back and reprise his character.
“I don’t know if he knew this, there [were plans] to have Star Lord T’Challa spin off into his own show with that universe and crew,” said Andrews. “We were all very excited. We know he would have loved it, too. And then, you know, he passed, and so that’s in limbo. So who knows? Maybe one day.”
Andrews also talked about how Boseman persevered to record his What If…? lines in time for the first season.
“Chadwick had recorded his Star Lord T’Challa stuff early. But we had those later episodes that he appeared in sporadically, and it was a long stretch before we got him [again],” said Andrews. “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 [for Season 1]. 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.”