MCU What If...? - 9 Biggest Takeaways From Episode 2

Fans of the MCU had been waiting over two years for What If…? to finally drop on Disney+ last week, and it’s fair to say that the series debut underwhelmed slightly. The introduction of Captain Carter herself was incredible, however the episode that surrounded her left a lot to be desired.

This was for a number of reasons, and turned up the pressure on fans’ scrutiny of the rest of the series, and the next episode in particular. Would it have the same flaws revolving around the inconsistent voice acting, the rushed pace, and the fact that it was essentially a retelling of a previous MCU movie with a few details tweaked?

While Captain Carter looked at the events of MCU past, episode two took to the stars to ponder the question – What if T’Challa became Star Lord?

If the first episode was underwhelming, the second more than made up for it, as Marvel Studios delivered a fun, awe-inspiring, and emotional second chapter in the series. There was nothing to dislike about this episode, as it featured the same brilliant animation and incredible set pieces, but offered so much more.

As said before, there were several big problems that kept episode one from truly reaching the high expectations of MCU fans. Possibly the biggest was that, with the exception of Peggy taking the serum, the HYDRA Stomper, and Red Skull’s journey with the Tesseract, much of it had been seen before.

This couldn’t be further from the case with episode two. Yondu sending Kraglin and Taserface to accidentally pick up T’Challa instead of Peter Quill sent a ripple effect throughout the cosmos, affecting the entire universe. This is what a ‘what if’ story should be.

The Wakandan prince transformed the Ravagers from no good outlaws into intergalactic Robin Hoods. He was able to convince the greatest threat the MCU has ever seen to stop his genocidal quest with a conversation, which opened up a power vacuum, and led to a new kingpin operating beyond the stars.

After being able to guess the majority of what would happen in episode one, episode two offered a story that no one could have seen coming, that was a whole lot of fun, and different to anything seen before in the franchise.