Another story coming to an end.

It’s crazy to think the first Guardians entered theaters almost 10 years ago, and now, we prepare to say goodbye to them. In only a few days, we will be seeing many familiar faces for what could be the last time, once again moving away from those we knew in Phases 1-3 and turning to new heroes and stories for Phases 4-6. As much as it’s going to hurt, we have a job to do, and that job is to share with you predictions and theories that we think will happen in GotG3. To hear our full podcast episode, click the button below to find your preferred listening platform, or listen live in this blog post by hitting play on the link provided.

Adam Warlock

Starting with the most obvious of topics from the trailers is the appearance of Adam Warlock. Now for those who have been fans for a good bit of the MCU, you know that in Guardians 2 Adam was hinted at in an end-credit scene. Fast forward 6 years later and here we are finally seeing his character come to life. For comic book fans, Adam is a pretty distinctive Marvel hero. Before we all knew Iron Man and Captain America, some of the big comic names included Adam and Spider-Man. But for some of us who are mainly MCU fans, he might be a little more obscure, so as always, I’m here to help.

His comic book origin links back to Earth, where he was created to essentially be the next generation of humans and to be perfect. Disagreeing with this reasoning, Adam rebels and comes across the High Evolutionary, who has Adam help him save the planet Counter-Earth (more to come on that momentarily). He then gives him the Soul Gem/Stone/Jewel and this gives Adam the ability to capture the souls of other beings. While in the trailers it does appear Adam has a stone on his forehead, it’s unclear what this stone will be as this universe’s Infinity Stones are no longer around. But that’s complicated, and something I don’t want to spend too much time thinking about. Adam also comes across an “evil” version of himself named Magus and works with Pip the Troll, Gamora, and Thanos. Thanos, later in Adam’s story, is one of his main foes and Adam is a large part of defeating him. It was likely a big reason so many comic fans were excited to see him at the end of Guardians 2, just to be disappointed that he never actually made it to see Thanos. Adam is a part of several different superhero teams throughout his storylines, most notably the Guardians of the Galaxy.

As far as powers, Adam is pretty much a much cooler Vision. He has a lot of abilities, which I won’t bore you with all of them, yet probably the most notable is the fact he is immortal. At the end of Guardians 2, we see Adam in a tank-like structure, which is actually a regenerative cocoon. This cocoon allows not only for Adam to regenerate, but also to adapt and create new powers for himself as the needs arise. On top of this fun little fact, he has superhuman strength and speed, can manipulate energy, and has cosmic senses. Again, he’s a cooler, less destructible version of Vision.

In this film, Adam is acting as an antagonist, which shouldn’t surprise anyone considering The Sovereign are his makers in the MCU and Ayesha wants to use him to destroy the Guardians, so he’s really just following orders. This is a pretty nice storyline since it directly picks up from something we saw in the last film as a B plot. But I don’t think he will remain a villain, as Adam has a lot of storylines to play out that I would imagine Marvel wants to explore. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him be the reason many of our Guardians don’t walk away from this movie, but I do think at the end of the film Adam will be “defeated”. More on why that’s in quotations later in the post and it’s not just about his immortality, although that does play a huge part.

The High Evolutionary

For context so people know who I’m talking about, this is the guy who looks like he has his face stretched and barely holding on. This is Herbert Wyndham, who is actually of Earth and I have deemed him as a mad scientist. He is best known for his experiments involving genetic manipulation, where he began to use animals and created a half-man, half-animal species. Surprisingly, in the comics, he isn’t the person who creates Rocket, although we see the MCU used the uncanny similarities to make it so that he is Rocket’s maker. But there are actually three really important things for us to touch on regarding the High Evolutionary, one that doesn’t affect this movie and two that do, so let’s get into it.

Starting with the one unrelated to this film but could have bigger effects on the MCU if Marvel decides to go this route is the fact that Herbert actually moves his experimentation to Wundagore Mountain at one point. And for those of you trying to figure out why that sounds so familiar, that’s the mountain we see in MoM that holds the shrine to the Scarlet Witch and is said to be the prison/home of Chthon, the being of Chaos. And if this wasn’t interesting enough, one of Herbert’s associates (I’m trying to simplify so I’m not going to bring in the whole background of this character) actually frees Chthon, which leads Herbert’s army of genetically mutated experiments known as the Knights of Wundagore to battle him. On that same night, a woman seeks shelter at Wundagore and delivers twins. Right as Chthon is being defeated, the second twin, a girl, is born. I don’t think I really have to say this next part, but those twins were Wanda and Pietro Maximoff and Wanda absorbed some of Chthon’s powers as her birth took place, gifting her Chaos magic. Now in the comics, Magneto is actually the twin’s father, and the twins are initially given to the Maximoffs, who act as adopted parents. I’m not saying this is the storyline that will come true in the MCU, but I do think it would be not only the most effective way to explain Wanda and Pietro’s mutant background, but it would explain the origin of her powers a little more.

This next point enters the realm of movie-related info and that is that the High Evolutionary creates this planet called Counter-Earth, an extremely detailed replica of Earth. The reason this ties pretty clearly into the film is that it’s believed that is the location we see at the beginning of most of the trailers, where the Guardians are interacting with what looks to be human-like animals. Knowing the background of the High Evolutionary, it’s likely these are all his creations, the “New Man” species he created using his experiments.

Lastly, I want to circle back on the fact that Adam and the High Evolutionary have a connection in the comics, which we might see play out here. The High Evolutionary adopts Adam and is the one to bestow him the Soul Stone, as mentioned before, but to go into more detail, he has Adam go and take back Counter-Earth after an uprising. As time goes on, Adam is manipulated into killing the High Evolutionary, who is revived later and about 27 more storylines take place, all of which I can’t and sort of don’t want to get into now. My main point is, it’s comic canon that Adam and the High Evolutionary have a relationship to one another and that Adam is used to kill him at one point. Could this be a direction we go in Guardians 3? It could definitely be an interesting one and could be part of Adam’s redemption arc rather than a manipulation tactic.

Adam and Eros – Is There a Connection to Eros and Celestials Here?

Let’s cut right to the chase – Adam, Eros, and Thanos all have run into each other quite a bit in the comics. I mean, Adam even kills Eros at one point, although like all comic book storylines, he comes back. But if you noticed, I did mention one name that we have all put behind us for a while, aka Thanos. Without Thanos and the billion storylines he has, Adam’s connection to Eros is a little weaker. So do I still think it could happen?

It’s the MCU, so my answer is yes it could happen, but I’m not sure I would hold my breath. I have been theorizing since Eternals that the main way they would get brought into the larger character MCU is through the Guardians, as they are some of the closest in the background to them. I still think this is possible, but I’m not sure the connection, or lack of it, between Eros and Adam, will be it. But you can never say never here and I think it could be really cool to have Adam be the one who connects some of these dots.

Who is Going to Die in Guardians Vol. 3

It’s probably one of the more gruesome questions we’ve asked but it’s important and worthy to touch on. And luckily, we happen to agree on all of them.

• Drax – Yes
• Gamora – Yes
• Nebula – No
• Quill – Yes (unless Mantis dies, then no)
• Mantis – No (unless Quill lives, then yes)
• Rocket – No
• Groot – No

End Credit Scene Predictions

To wrap up our predictions for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, we are doing our usual segment on guessing what the end credit scenes might be. It has been confirmed that there are two, so let’s get into it.

Taylor and I both passionately believe in having one end credit tied to the movie we just watched and having one that opens the doors to another project coming up. Starting with the one tied to this film, I think it’s possible we see Adam defeated on screen, but then see him come back to life in an end-credit scene. I know this contradicts another theory I threw out earlier, but hey, it’s fine because I’ll likely be wrong about both. Taylor also agrees that the first end credit scene will likely be Adam-related, opening the door for his character moving forward, as it’s highly likely we will be seeing a lot more of him.

Finishing with the end credit we think will cover a future project, my guess is actually that I think we will see the Scarlet Witch rise again. It’s been a year since we saw her fall at Wundagore Mountain and I think with the connection that the High Evolutionary has there, whether shown/explained on screen or not, I think it has a lot of potential to have this be the film we see her return. Taylor’s prediction lies more in something I discussed earlier, which is the Eternals. As I mentioned, this is the closest project to the Eternals, so bringing them in or having an end credit that even hints at their possible future (aka Eternals 2) would make a ton of sense. Of course, end credits sometimes are completely unrelated altogether to the films and paint bigger pictures, but lately, it’s seemed that Marvel has been using the second as a way to show future projects that are somehow involved with the project we just saw, think Loki Season 2 being the second end credit in a movie where Kang is the featured villain.

That’s it for our predictions on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. We are only a few days away from the movie and reviews have been nothing but insanely positive. Of course, that could mean just about anything nowadays in the MCU, but either way, I know we will all be making our way to the theaters anyway. We will be covering the film through and through, so get ready for our first-pass reactions next Sunday. As always, make sure you get out to see the film, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”, Shashwat, Covered Geekly