Marvel’s ‘What If…?’ released its second episode, titled – ” What If… T’Challa Became a Star-Lord?” The second episode of this animated anthology series is much better than the first episode by a country mile (not that the first episode was bad) and was entertaining from start to finish. However, unlike the first episode, the latest one is filled with numerous, yet brilliant call-backs, references and Easter Eggs. Out of the dozens of references we saw, let’s check out the 10 noticeable Easter Eggs, references and call backs in What If…? Episode 2:
Star-Lord
Unlike Peter Quill, T’Challa’s version of Star-Lord is well known around the universe. He is even known by his enemies and well respected by them. This is stark in contrast to how Peter is treated in Guardians of the Galaxy. The difference in treatment is quite funny.
Thanos
When we saw Josh Brolin’s name in the beginning credit, we knew we were in for some Thanos action, but it was not in the way that we thought. The Mad Titan actually got beaten by T’Challa… with an argument. So anticlimactic, yet 100% possible in Thanos’ case – showing that even the mad titan can be reasoned with. Still Thanos taking on The Black Order is satisfying.
Fantastic Four & The Skrulls
Tarnax IV is a planet, which is the Skrull capital in the Marvel comics. This was when Skrulls were the actual villains in the comic book series (and in this episode it would seem). But it is also a subtle nod to the Fantastic Four comics, in which the planet was mentioned for the first time.
Drax
We get a look at a happy Drax, whose wife and child is alive. Which means no Guardians of The Galaxy in this parallel universe. He is still boisterous and pretty much pushes T’Challa into taking a selfie.
Robin Hood & David Hasselhoff
T’Challa follows in the footsteps of his favourite childhood hero, Robin Hood, while taking on the galaxy. Peter follows in the footsteps of David Hasselhoff, while doing the same. Both characters show parallels in their growth, similar to their aspiring heroes.
Oh No Korg?!
We see the Collector use a Kronan arm to beat T’Challa. Normally, that would be just a small Korg’s species reference to us – but the Tivan said that he took it off the corpse of a particularly chatty Kronan. And the only Kronan we can think of is Korg – who is quite chatty. This does not look good…
Avengers Memorabilia
There’s no way you guys missed it – Thor’s Hammer and Captain America’s Shield in The Collector’s Arsenal. If you look closely enough, we can even see Thanos’ great sword which he used at the end of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ to destroy the aforementioned shield.
Kree, Wakandan & Asgardian Weaponry
The Collector has a lot of weapons in his collection. He also goes through multiple weapons (both alien and of Earth) while fighting T’Challa. His armour reminds us of the armour used by the Kree special forces, which also grants them some powers. He also has Asgardian weapons in his possession – Thor’s Hammer and Hela’s Necrosword. We also get to see some of the Wakandan ships in action as well.
Ego?
Of course, with Yondu kidnapping the wrong kid, this means that Peter does not leave Earth. At the end of this episode, we see that Ego has not forgotten about him and he has come to Earth, for his son. This doesn’t look good…
A ‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian’ Reference?
This reference, if it even is a reference, should have been mentioned in the first episode itself. At the end of each episode, we are shown some brilliant drawings of some of the locations, where our characters will end up going to. ‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian’ was the first show in recent history to do so, so we figured this is a subtle nod to the brilliant live-action series.
Check out the first two episodes of Marvel’s ‘What If…?’ on Disney+ Hotstar.
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