James Gunn Talks The Celestials and the Cosmic World of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2′

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is available today via digital download, but such is the business of Marvel superhero movies that we’re already looking ahead to the next movie and what James Gunn has in store for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2'. As he’s been promoting the upcoming home video release, Gunn has talked about the sequel and one thing in particular has caught our nerdy attention: The Celestials.

Seen ever-so-briefly in The Collector’s lab during the first film, The Celestials are some of the oldest and most powerful creatures in the Marvel universe. They were around near the beginning of the universe and are responsible for the birth of life and the creation of the multiverse. They created the Eternals (another cosmic group we’ll get to explaining another time) and are responsible for mutants through genetic manipulation. So, powerful dudes. To give you a sense of size, Knowhere, the floating head that The Collector calls home in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is the decapitated head of a dead Celestial. There’s also the shot above, when The Collector shows the Guardians a glimpse of the Infinity Stone’s power. That’s Eson the Searcher. Big guy. Wears lots of armor.

Says Gunn to IGN:

I mean, I love that guy [Eson the Searcher] that we see in the Collector’s lab. I love that character. I think he’s really cool. The visual effects artists did a great job with him, and they were given a pretty big task, to create this character in a short amount of time and put him in there. Yeah, I like that stuff, the Celestials. I like the whole idea that the Guardians are a bunch of mortals playing in the field of gods. It’s really about their mortality in the face of all that stuff that makes it both dramatic and fun.

When pressed on whether this means we’ll get to see more of Eson and his crew in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2,’ Gunn couldn’t officially comment, but did say, “Maybe at some point, yeah.”

Gunn has previously pointed out that ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2' is not necessarily beholden to what is happening in ‘Avengers 2' and the Marvel Cinematic Events on Earth. The ‘Guardians’ films are very much building their own cosmic universe and Marvel is very much looking to expand that. (It will actually be interesting to see which world Captain Marvel will play in. Will she be more of an ‘Avengers’ girl, or will she be someone that turns up in the ‘Guardians’ universe?) Eson the Searcher actually arrives on Earth at one point (Miami, Florida of all places) to observe our fair culture, so it's not crazy to think that the two worlds can collide in the future.

There are a lot of characters—from Celestials to Adam Warlock to Quasar—that we’d love to see in future ‘Guardians’ sequels and now the question isn’t so much whether we’ll ever get that opportunity, but how soon?