For fans of Marvel Comics, the fact that they’re doing two Infinity War movies without one key character present is a little strange. Adam Warlock is a very important component of the Infinity War saga, namely because he sort of starts the whole thing. But here’s some (possibly big) news: Adam Warlock was originally part of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and James Gunn revealed that he will appear in Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Well, well, well.

While speaking with /Film about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gunn revealed that he’d originally had big plans for Warlock, the artificially created man who flies off into space and gains the ability to absorb power from someone called the High Evolutionary. It’s complicated.

I love Adam Warlock. He’s one of my favorite 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 realized 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.

While he didn’t outright say that Warlock would appear in Guardians 3, it’s a pretty safe bet since that’s the next Marvel movie Gunn is doing. He also clarified that he wasn’t working on Warlock in order to put him in Infinity War.

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.

So, okay, he’s not in Infinity War. But (and this is a big and rather convoluted but, and I’m not trying to start any rumors here, but), only the first part of the Marvel Infinity War storyline is called Infinity War. The second, previously titled Infinity War Part II, is currently sitting on the backburner under Untitled Avengers Movie (2019). So, Gunn could just mean that he’s not working on Warlock for the first Infinity War, but that he might appear in the Avengers movie that comes after it, if Guardians 3 comes out before. Which, honestly, would make a lot of sense if Marvel is doing Infinity War anyway. Why attempt to do the arc if you’re not going to have any mention of the most important character?

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 opens May 5.

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