The MCU Just Broke Its Own Timeline With T'Challa's Power Stone Mission

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Marvel's What If...? episode 2.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe can't seem to keep its timeline straight with T'Challa's Power Stone mission in T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) becomes Star-Lord, forever changing the MCU. Instead of the Ravagers taking Peter Quill (voiced by Brian T. Delaney) from Earth, the episode shows the group capture T'Challa, who changes the interstellar crime syndicate. The Ravagers then become like the Robin Hoods of the galaxy, using their schemes to help those less fortunate. T'Challa's Star-Lord has other far-reaching impacts as well, including convincing Thanos (Josh Brolin) to give up his genocidal plans to destroy half of life with the Infinity Stones.

The episode also completely changes Peter Quill's life. In Celestial named Ego (Kurt Russell), to find him eventually. Ego wants to use Quill to help him recreate the galaxy in his image, and without the Guardians of the Galaxy at Quill's side, there's not a lot that can stop him.

In addition to Ego's universe-threatening plan, there's another problem in What If...? episode 2. In the episode, it's T'Challa, not Quill, who goes to Morag to get the Power Stone. Morag is a planet that suffered an apocalypse and regularly floods. However, like in Guardians of the Galaxy, the floodwaters recede in What If...?, allowing T'Challa to gain access to the Power Stone. Unfortunately, Marvel seems to get its timeline mixed up in the episode. In Guardians of the Galaxy, Quill had to wait for a particular moment for the floodwater to go away. T'Challa's Star-Lord in What If...? arrives on the planet much sooner.

What If...? episode 2 breaks Marvel's timeline. In James Gunn's Director's Commentary for Guardians of the Galaxy, he says that the floodwaters on Morag only recede every 300 years. In the regular MCU timeline, the floodwaters recede in 2014, allowing Quill to be the first person to access the Power Stone. Because of that timeline, the Avengers go back to 2014 to get the Power Stone before Quill in T'Challa becoming Star-Lord shouldn't affect the geological happenings of Morag, it seems Marvel forgot that the planet should still be underwater.

Of course, What If...? is all about doing things differently. The show's premise is that small events can change history, so timeline plot holes aren't a big issue. After all, the show throws the current MCU timeline out the window. Though it doesn't seem like T'Challa's life affects Morag, there could have been other events in the alternate MCU timeline that do. The timing does seem like an MCU plot hole, but—especially with Ego possibly threatening all life in the galaxy—it's not one that Marvel is overly concerned with.

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Marvel's What If...? releases new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.