WARNING: The following contains spoilers for What If...? Season 1, Episode 2, "What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord," streaming now on Disney+.
What If…? Season 1, Episode 2, “What If... T’Challa Became a Star-Lord?,” is chock full of Easter eggs. Some of them are obvious -- Thor’s hammer and Captain America’s shield in the Collector’s armory, for example -- but others are visible for only a second or two. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was never shy about such details, but they take on new meaning in What If…? because they suggest how unseen events in each episode’s variant universe played out. In one particular instance, it speaks to a galactic-level power clash sometime in this universe’s past.
During the Ravagers’ attempted robbery of the Collector’s vaults, T’Challa comes across a Wakandan spacecraft, activated by his necklace and revealing that his native country has been searching the stars for him ever since his abduction. It serves as the catalyst for his return to Earth and presumably for future episodes of What If…? set in this universe. But among the other ships in the collection is a familiar one, and -- like many of the others -- it suggests an epic conflict in which only the Collector emerged victoriously.
The ship is the Commodore, which belonged to the Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok, where Thor and his friends used it to make an impromptu escape from the planet Sakaar. It served as the Grandmaster's personal ship, which he used for various celebrations in various states of undress and presumably meant a great deal to him. What isn’t well known in the MCU is that the Collector and the Grandmaster are brothers. They have existed almost since the dawn of time, and both have amassed a great deal of power in their own way. In the prime MCU timeline, they seemed more or less content to ignore each other. While the Grandmaster’s fate is currently up in the air, the Collector was murdered by Thanos during Avengers: Infinity War. Given that, it’s unlikely that the two will end up in any serious conflict anytime soon.
The variant universe of What If...? is much different. The Collector has become the most powerful crime lord in the universe, and his vast array of toys speaks to successful battles against all manner of high-end opponents. The presumption is that he takes their trophies for his own use once he defeats them. That raises the awkward question of how he got the Commodore and why the Grandmaster hasn’t come back to claim it. The Ragnarok villain is no less possessive than his brother, and Sakaar is full of resources and personnel at his disposal. It seems unlikely that he would simply “let” anyone take possession of anything he owned, especially something personal like the Commodore.
Anything is possible. As such, the Grandmaster might have let his brother take the ship back to Knowhere as a gift. Alternately, the Collector might have won it in a bet or similar contest. Considering the two’s familial connections, the loser might begrudgingly give up a trinket or two for such sport. Those comparatively peaceful notions might actually be in keeping with the episode's stated ethical question: whether nature or nurture predominates in a person’s soul. Just as figures like Thanos have reformed in this universe, it’s conceivable that a more enlightened Grandmaster stayed away from the trappings of power. That would leave the Commodore’s original builders in need of a buyer, or the Collector simply taking it by force from whoever gave the ship to the Grandmaster in the prime MCU.
However, the Grandmaster being on the losing end of some kind of power struggle seems far more likely. That would certainly keep with the Collector’s fearsome reputation in this universe and match his ruthless materialism. Their conflict could have been fought over power or influence or something as minor as the ship itself. It might even have been something as ridiculous as which one of them their mother loved best. Both men are equally vain and possessive and could have gone to war over almost nothing. The resulting power struggle could easily have cemented the Collector as the terrifying figure the rest of the universe seems to view him as.
The irony is that the ship clearly means comparatively little to the Collector, as it’s just one more in an impossibly large fleet of them. It’s not so much that he demonstrates hate for his brother with the gesture. It’s that he’s utterly indifferent: adding the ship he acquired from the Grandmaster to a pile of anonymous trinkets. Fans likely won’t find out the truth of the matter -- the Easter egg is small, and this particular universe has a number of more pressing questions to answer -- but as a bit of world-building, it speaks volumes. Look for What If…? to continue using such details as short-hand suppositions for countless unseen events.
New episodes of Marvel Studios' What If...? debut Wednesdays on Disney+.