Marvel Zombies showrunner reveals What If...? team's original plans for Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther, as they break down touching T'Challa moment

The team behind What If...? were floating around plans for a spin-off series about Star-Lord T'Challa prior to Chadwick Boseman's death, Marvel Zombies's Bryan Andrews has revealed.

In a new interview with ScreenRant, the showrunner was asked about a "poignant" moment in which the King of Wakanda makes a non-speaking appearance – and why they chose to have Peter Parker narrate the sequence.

"We didn't have Chadwick," Andrews replied candidly. "If we had Chadwick, it would've been completely different choices. If we had Chadwick, he would've had his own Star-Lord T'Challa spinoff show long before we did the zombie thing.

"But being able to revisit his character in that way, the way it plays out, it was another way to be with him in some strange way, even though there were no words. You know what I mean? It's still Chadwick's Black Panther, and that's rad."

After Boseman tragically passed from colon cancer in August 2020, executive producer Victoria Alonso reassured fans that the actor would not be digitally rendered in the soon-to-film sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Instead, writer-director Ryan Coogler, who had already turned in a draft of the script, went back to the drawing board with his writing partner Joe Robert Cole. In the end, the duo followed the comics, and had Letitia Wright's Shuri take over the Black Panther mantle in the movie.

Later, the studio itself confirmed that Boseman's T'Challa would not be recast – a vow that respectfully extends to the MCU's animated titles, too.

"We actually showed an early animatic to Ryan Coogler to get his notes," Marvel Zombies executive producer Brad Winderbaum added. "He had some great ideas in that sequence that were really additive."

The idea of T'Challa being "a Star-Lord" was first explored in the first season of What If...?, when episode 2 imagines a world where Yondu and his Ravagers abducted T'Challa from Earth instead of Peter Quill. The majority of the story then takes place 20 years later, as T'Challa helps Nebula to steal the Embers of Genesis, a cosmic artifact capable of eradicating galactic hunger, from galactic baddie Taneleer Tivan.

Marvel Zombies premieres on Disney Plus on September 24. While we wait, check out our guide to the other upcoming Marvel movies and shows heading our way.