Warning! The following contains spoilers for Episode 2 of Marvel's What If...?. Read at your own risk!
Marvel's What If...? has premiered one of Chadwick Boseman's final performances as T'Challa, and it was a real tear-jerker. Fortunately for fans swept up in the emotion of the episode, actor Chris Sullivan recently spoke to CinemaBlend and proved that he's a kindred spirit when it comes to Boseman's moving performance.
Chris Sullivan returned to the MCU to voice his Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Ravager Taserface in the episode, which imagines a world in which Yondu's crew mistakenly kidnapped T'Challa as a child and not Peter Quill. I asked Sullivan if he got a chance to see the episode yet, and the This Is Us actor shared his thoughts having watched it:
I was really taken aback at how emotional it made me. I mean obviously the news when he passed was extremely sad. But to hear him, and to see him, even in animated form... I mean, it was really moving. I was moved to tears. It was special for sure. . . [T'Challa] returning home in a series that asks ‘What If,’ you know, is a really profound and emotional thing.
There's definitely something magical about Chadwick Boseman's first episode of Marvel's What If...? T'Challa doing so well as Star-Lord that he turned Thanos into a good guy is a fantastic twist, and his return to Wakanda after decades away is as profound as Chris Sullivan said. The episode as a whole is a reminder of what a wonderful presence Boseman was and how much he is still missed.
Chris Sullivan was one of the many celebrities who lent their voice to What If...?, but unlike some, his involvement wasn't exactly a given. Sullivan shared how he felt when he was first offered to reprise his role as Taserface, and the confusion that followed.
It was [a] surprise. I could’ve sworn he was in a fiery explosion! At first I wasn’t quite understanding what the concept was because they were still playing their cards close to the vest as to what this project was. And we didn’t get full scripts, nothing like that. It took me a second to figure it out. Then I saw T’Challa in one of the scripts and I was just thoroughly confused and excited to see what Marvel had up their sleeve.
Taserface's return to the MCU isn't quite as substantial as his debut in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, but the fact he's back is certainly interesting for Chris Sullivan. Is it possible that Sullivan could have a larger MCU future and be re-introduced in live-action as a variant of Taserface from another multiverse? Listen, it's hard to count anything out with all the time stuff happening in Phase 4, so why not?
Marvel's What If...? premieres new episodes on Disney+ Wednesdays. There are still many wild stories left to tell in the MCU in this series. For now, be sure to read up about the rejected Spider-Man story that sounds like an absolute nightmare here.
