James Gunn Admits New Marvel Hero Was Supposed To Debut In The MCU Sooner

Apparently, a Marvel hero was supposed to appear much earlier in the timeline, but James Gunn couldn't find a spot to fit him in

By Douglas Helm | Published

james gunn

San Diego Comic-Con always has plenty of exciting reveals to look forward to each year and this year Marvel didn’t disappoint. We got massive announcements in the form of future projects for Marvel’s Phase 5 and Phase 6. We also got small tidbits of information outside of the MCU event, like the fact that Adam Warlock was actually supposed to show up in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 first. MTV News caught up with James Gunn for a quick interview at Comic-Con and Gunn revealed this little trivia fact. Check out the brief interview below:

Apparently, Adam Warlock was going to be a character in the second entry to the trilogy, but James Gunn couldn’t find the space to fit him in. This makes sense, as there was quite a lot going on in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It makes sense that Warlock was needing to be more of a prominent character in his introduction. Of course, there have been teases of Adam Warlock up to this point. In the first Guardians of the Galaxy, it looked like his cocoon was in the Collector’s base in the first movie. We also saw his birth pod officially revealed at the end of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, with Ayesha the Sovereign creating him to defeat the Guardians.

MTV News also got a quick confirmation that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 would be James Gunn’s last foray with the Guardians of the Galaxy. While Gunn initially said yes, he backstepped a little mentioning he “doesn’t know what’s going to happen.” He did however confirm that this is the end of the story for this specific iteration of the team, which lines up with his previous statements about the Guardians.

They also talked about his pitch for a project based on the Ravagers, which didn’t come to fruition. However, as James Gunn points out, he has plenty on his plate and he pitches ideas to MCU mastermind Kevin Fiege all the time. He even wraps up the interview clip by mentioning he texted Fiege saying he should do a project about a certain character.

Whether or not we get more James Gunn in the MCU, this is sure to be a promising introduction for Adam Warlock. The casting of the actor for the role was up in the air for a while, with Will Poulter finally being cast in the role. Adam Warlock has played a big role in numerous Marvel comics, so it seems likely that this movie won’t be the end for Will Poulter in the MCU. Maybe it could even set him up as a member of future potential Guardians teams.

It won’t be long until we see the Guardians of the Galaxy directed by James Gunn again. We’re getting The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special in December, which will be a nice prelude before we’re hit with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on May 5, 2023. It sounds like this will be an important movie for the MCU at large, so these will definitely be essential projects to check out.