Coming up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is What If?, an animated show which will explore various multi-verse storylines with popular MCU characters. Through the trailer of the show, we saw What If explore stories like T’Challa becoming Star Lord instead of Black Panther, or Peggy Carter becoming a super-soldier instead of Steve Rogers. The ten part stories comes after the finale episode of Loki, where the Multiverse was unleashed upon the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Henceforth, most films and series of the Phase 4, including Doctor Strange 2, Ant-Man 3 and Spider-Man 3 will deal with the same concept.
In one of the episodes of What If? T’Challa or the Black Panther, gets kidnapped by Yondu instead of Peter Quill. He then grows up to become the Star Lord instead of the prince of Wakanda. This episode is actor Chadwick Boseman’s last venture before he passed away in 2020. The 43-year-old was fighting cancer for many years.
In a press-conference before the release of the show, the makers of What If? discussed their experience working with Chadwick in his what happened to be his last venture. Chadwick had recorded the voice of T’Challa in 2019, and the show went on post-production after his death.
Executive Producer Brad Winderbaum said, “It was amazing being able to work with him. We only got a small moment because our episodes are so short, compared to everyone who was able to enjoy his presence on Black Panther or even on Civil War. We had him for a little moment, to do our thing, and we’re so grateful for it. I think he may have been even one of the first actors to have signed on and said, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m gonna do that voice.’ And we were so excited because we really wanted to work with Chadwick and we just loved Black Panther.”
He added that Chadwick brought a lot of his theatre-training to his voice work and really put his heart and soul to the project. “It was really great to hear him talk about how excited he was to play this particular version of T’Challa because it was different. Because it was a version of him being able to play the king, but without the mantle of royalty. It was a completely different spin. He was excited to bring that flavor to T’Challa and give it to the audience.’
Celebrated actor Jeffrey Wright has made his entry in the MCU as the Watcher with the show. He also recounted his experience of working with Chadwick. “I met Chadwick for the first time, at ComiCon in the bathroom. He was there to introduce the first Black Panther film, and I was with Westworld. We had a really wonderful exchange. He said some wonderful things when we’d run into each other here and there, after. We in fact, were going to work together in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. I couldn’t do it because I was tied up with another film, unfortunately.
“So, it was a lovely surprise to find that we would have the opportunity, at least, to be in the same space with What If?. This being the last performance that we’ll get from him I find very moving. The thing that strikes me most about him is that the mythic qualities he brought to his films paled in front of the mythic quality of his life. In terms of the way he did his work, with grace, dignity, and power. So, I’m really pleased to-to, uh, to share a little bit of time with him on this,” he shared.
Bryan Andrews, who directed the show said that it was tough for the team to work on his episode after his death. “He was a hero, for real. When the show was in post-production, he had already passed. So we had to make sure that there was nothing wrong with his episode, in terms of the music, the score, and everything else. We tried to make sure that the episode would honour everything Chadwick brought to the table. And it would get really emotional, trying to put together this episode as it was his last. It is still very rough,” he shared.
What If? is written by AC Bradley and stars many actors from the MCU including Samuel L Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Sebastian Stan, Tom Hiddleston, Hailey Atwell, Karen Gillian, Josh Brolin among others. The show will premiere on Disney+ Hotstar on August 11.
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