Adam Warlock Was Almost In Guardians Of The Galaxy 2, WILL Be In Vol. 3

That Guardians Easter egg is finally going to pay-off.

adam warlock
Marvel Comics

The end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie dropped a big hint towards an appearance from Adam Warlock, something Marvel fans have been waiting for ever since.

After that film it was expected he'd appear in the sequel, however chances disippated when it was revealed that Kurt Russell's Ego was Star-Lord's dad, and that a key character had been cut in the development stage, with signs pointing to it being Warlock. Director James Gunn has now confirmed that to be the case, telling /Film:

"I love Adam Warlock. He’s one of my favourite characters. In all truth, I wrote an early treatment where I had Adam Warlock as a part…this is your big scoop, because I don’t think I’ve told anybody this… It was Adam Warlock.
"He was a big part of the screenplay and I realised it was one character too many. And I adored the character. I adored what we had done with him. I think we did something really creative and unique with Adam Warlock. But it was one character too many and I didn’t want to lose Mantis and Mantis was more organically part of the movie anyway. So I decided to save him for later."

Of course, saying that he's being saved for later doesn't explicitly confirm that he's in Guardians 3, Gunn does clarify that the character won't be in Infinity War. It had been speculated he may turn up there, since Warlock is a big enemy of Thanos and the Guardians are arriving on Earth, but don't expect to see him next year. Gunn said:

Advertisement
"He’s not. He’s not in Infinity War. But he will be a part of the future Marvel cosmic universe and a pretty important part of that.”

Still not confirmation of Guardians 3, but the signs are getting closer - after all, if Gunn is developing the character for a future cosmic-set Marvel movie, it's the clear option since he's just confirmed he's writing and directing Vol. 3. Marvel chief Kevin Feige, then, put the matter to bed, telling io9:

"[Adam Warlock’s arrival] will not be until Guardians 3. Adam is not a part of Infinity War, which of course he is in the comics, but James [Gunn] did always really like Adam Warlock, and our version of Infinity War is the culmination of all the stories we told up to this point.
"James has had ideas to introduce Adam—certainly there were ideas in Vol. 2, maybe even in part one, but part two for sure—which were great, but the way the story was coming together, there just wasn’t time for that."

While it's a shame the character won't be in Infinity War, given the huge part he plays in defeating Thanos, that is already going to be a stuffed movie in terms of characters, so Vol. 3 should give him much more space for a proper introduction.

Advertisement

Are you excited for Adam Warlock to turn up? Who do you think should play him? Let us know down in the comments.

Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.