After two movies, a Christmas special, and a bunch of other MCU appearances,
there's plenty of backstory for fans to know before going in to see "Guardians
of the Galaxy Vol. 3." If something left you wondering what you missed, here's what to know.
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
Between the events of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" and "Vol. 3," the ever-growing and
changing team has done plenty in other MCU stories. They were near the center
of the action in "Avengers: Infinity War'' and "Avengers: Endgame," and they appeared
briefly at the beginning of "Thor: Love and Thunder." The average MCU fan likely
kept up with those films and the important plot and character developments therein,
but what's less certain is that everyone who bought a ticket for "Vol. 3" will have seen "The
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," which started streaming on Disney+ in November 2022.
The 42-minute special, which was in essence an extended Kevin Bacon joke,
contains two critical pieces of information in advance of the
third cinematic installment. For one, Mantis reveals that she's Peter Quill's half-sister.
"Mantis, that's the greatest Christmas gift I could ever get."
Also, sometime prior to the events of the holiday special, the Guardians took Knowhere off of the
Collector's hands. In the first movie, the inhabited head of a deceased celestial is
described as a lawless place of ill-repute where one should watch their wallet. Later,
Thanos all but destroys Knowhere in his effort to claim the Reality Stone.
During the holiday special and at the start of "Vol. 3," the Guardians of the Galaxy' spend their
days guarding and rebuilding Knowhere, which has become a refuge of sorts. That they're creating
their own utopian society for broken people in a broken place is in keeping with the movie's
themes, especially when compared to the High Evolutionary's disturbing concept of utopia.
The MCU's timeline has gotten increasingly convoluted, especially in the post-blip era,
despite the fact that most of the franchise's stories are told in a pretty straightforward
way. "Vol. 3" relies more than usual on a framing device that flashes back and
forth between Rocket's youth as a captive of the High Evolutionary and his present,
in which he's fighting for his life. This structure definitely tugs at the heartstrings,
and the story is well-told enough to follow,
but exactly when everything is happening and for how long is less clear.
There are visual markers that let us know some time has passed. We first see Rocket as a kit,
then a juvenile. The High Evolutionary has only one tiny silver device on his face as
opposed to an entire apparatus stretching it taut. Viewers first saw Rocket in the
MCU's version of 2014, when the first "Guardians" movie took place. "Vol. 3"
takes place after the holiday special, which is set around Christmas of 2025.
Raccoons mature over one to two years, so we can guess that Rocket is at least 13,
but he's probably much older. He brags that he's escaped prison on 22 separate occasions,
which wouldn't happen overnight. Real raccoons can live to about 16,
but his genetic and cybernetic enhancements have almost certainly given him a longer lifespan.
As "Vol. 3" begins, Peter Quill is still reeling from the loss of the Gamora he loved. Nebula
is doing her best to support him through his grief, which is why she fails to mention that
the version of her sister who is now in the MCU is her contact within the Ravagers. Whether this
Gamora is Peter's Gamora is played for light humor and heartbreaking drama in "Vol. 3." But
it can also leave some fans who don't recall the convoluted way we got here scratching their heads.
A great many of Marvel's Phase 3, 4, and 5 arcs have to do with alternate timelines,
universes, realms, or dimensions. Doctor Strange, for example, met the Illuminati,
a group of supers from universe 838. This Gamora isn't from an alternate universe, per se,
but she's not from Star-Lord's timeline. The Gamora that loved Peter was thrown from a cliff on
Vormir during "Infinity War" so that Thanos could obtain the Soul Stone. She's definitely dead.
"Tell me you didn't do it!"
"I had to."
"Endgame" created a new timeline branch, and with it, a divergent Gamora with unique life
experiences and personality traits. Biologically, she's the same being he fell in love with, but she
has totally different memories. While some comics stories would refer to this alternate timeline as
a different universe, that doesn't seem to be the case here. The MCU is often purposefully vague
about these distinctions, though, so as to keep as many story possibilities as open as possible.
The gold hued race known as the Sovereign is introduced near the beginning of "Vol.
2" when Star-Lord and company are hired to protect their uber valuable Anulax batteries.
They're successful, which wins them the esteem of the Sovereign, a notoriously haughty people.
Rocket destroys any good will the Guardians have with the Sovereign almost immediately, though,
when he pockets a few Anulax batteries in addition to their payment: Nebula.
"Vol. 2" ends with five post-credits scenes; the third shows that High Priestess Ayesha has
something cooking -- a next-gen birthing pod. She says she's designed "him" to destroy the
Guardians after they wronged and embarrassed her. She adds that she'll call him Adam,
which fans correctly took to mean that Adam Warlock's arrival was imminent.
"Vol. 3" gives Adam's backstory, as well as the rest of the Sovereign, a tweak. The High
Evolutionary brought them into existence as one of his experiments aimed at creating a
perfect race. Though "Vol. 2" makes it seem like Adam was Ayesha's idea, she complains that the
High Evolutionary took him out of his cocoon too early. This retcon doesn't come out of nowhere.
"That, my child, is the next step in our evolution."
And it's worth noting that, while the Sovereign are an MCU invention,
the High Evolutionary, Ayesha, and Adam Warlock are longstanding Marvel
Comics characters who definitely matter in each other's stories. Totally unremarked
upon in "Vol. 3" is the gem beset in Adam's forehead. Canonically, it's the Soul Stone.
Like Marvel Comics, the MCU is loaded with unusual celestial bodies. "Vol. 1" had the
floating decapitated head that is Knowhere, and "Vol. 2" boasted Ego the Living Planet. Now,
"Vol. 3" presents a cosmic mass unlike anything we've ever seen before. The Orgoscope is an
organic, bioengineered entity grown, owned, and operated by the High Evolutionary and his
public-facing company, OrgoCorp. It's literally a planet-sized hunk of tissue that houses OrgoCorp's
headquarters, where the company's daily operations take place and where proprietary information,
like, say, Rocket's file, is kept secure. That sensitive intellectual property is
guarded by OrgoSentries, one of whom is Nathan Fillion's frustrated foreman, Master Karja.
Less weird but less well-explained is OrgoCorp itself. "Vol. 3" only devotes a line or two
to the idea that the High Evolutionary is the nefarious CEO of a shady conglomerate.
OrgoCorp seems to be offering naturally derived body modifications to consumers throughout the
universe. There's an element of greenwashing to it all, though, since we know the High Evolutionary
is also experimenting with cybernetics and has a terrifyingly warped moral compass. OrgoCorp's
less controversial work covers for and pays for the High Evolutionary's real passion:
callously creating and destroying life until it fits his ideals.
It took 26 movies for two characters to get intimate on screen in the MCU,
and even then, what was advertised as a steamy Marvel first turned out to
be rather underwhelming. The most enduring romance was between a witch and an android.
Second place probably goes to Peter Quill and Gamora, and we only got a few minutes'
worth of their relationship at the very end of "Vol. 2" and in "Avengers: Infinity War."
Fans likely went into "Vol. 3" wondering whether the MCU might engineer a way for
Star-Lord and alternate timeline Gamora to find love, but instead,
director James Gunn took this potential subplot in what seems to be an entirely unexpected direction.
If you're looking for it, there's major romantic tension between Star-Lord and Nebula throughout
"Vol. 3." Gamora herself picks up on it, after which there's a moment when Quill seems to realize
he does find Nebula attractive. Nebula is, of course, hard-shelled and combative as ever.
"Knock it off!"
"What? I just never noticed how black your eyes were."
But her empathetic attitude toward him early on combined with the closure Peter gets when
he says goodbye to Gamora leads us to wonder: are we supposed to be shipping
Star-Lord and Nebula now? "Vol. 3" is ambiguous enough to support the idea.
When Drax, Mantis, and Nebula get stuck on the High Evolutionary's pyramid-shaped vessel,
they discover an onboard prison full of fair-haired children. Mantis and Nebula struggle
to communicate with the scared kids, but Drax, who comforts them by badly imitating a monkey,
eventually reveals that he speaks their language. After Peter manages to save Rocket,
the Guardians' mission becomes rescuing the innocents trapped on that ship.
The film never provides the name of their race or a planet from which they might hail,
but two clues help to fill in the blanks. In one, the High Evolutionary watches a blonde
girl run circles in a human-sized hamster wheel. He's annoyed that,
while he's been able to engineer negative qualities out of her, he hasn't been able
to replicate Rocket's superior intellect. Since the High Evolutionary's methods seem
to be capturing specimens and rapidly evolving them or breeding them through birthing pods,
these children are basically the High Evolutionary's latest guinea pigs.
In the mid-credits stinger, the girl who was jogging around the hamster wheel has
joined the new iteration of the Guardians led by Rocket Raccoon. The others refer to
her as Phyla. This is almost definitely Marvel Comics' Phyla Vell, a genetically engineered
super-humanoid and the daughter of Mar-Vell, who does eventually join the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Superhero movies usually have over-the-top fights that would absolutely prove fatal
to normal people, but "Vol. 3" takes this idea to the extreme. Because it's advertised as the
finale of the "Guardians" trilogy, and because the trailers and press tour seemed to foreshadow some
tissue-worthy tragedy, most fans fully expected a fan-favorite protagonist would die. Instead,
"Vol. 3" contains multiple fake-out deaths, but no main character kicks the bucket.
"Are you ready? For one last ride?"
Rocket's near-death experience is not only plausible, but it also serves as the catalyst
for the whole plot. Drax takes two deadly blasts to the chest but manages to recover,
seemingly thanks to the same med packs that wouldn't work on Rocket.
But Groot is decapitated in a duel with Adam Warlock on Knowhere, after which the Sovereign
takes Nebula's comically-large energy blade to the chest and collapses, lifeless. And Quill
succumbs to the elements in space. How did they live through that? It's easy enough to explain
with Groot. He has sped-up regenerative powers, especially as they pertain to his limbs. Since
he wasn't completely destroyed, he simply had to regrow the plant matter that makes up his body,
and he remained the same Groot, which wasn't the case after "Vol. 1." The MCU's Adam Warlock has
superior durability and healing. In the comics, he can be killed but can't actually die. At the end
of the movie, he imparts this ability to Peter, who really was a goner, to bring him back to life.
"Vol. 3" was meant to be the capstone to these superheroes' shared story,
and based on all the tearful goodbyes in the film's final moments, it probably is,
at least as a group. Gamora returns to the Ravagers,
and her smile makes it clear that's where she belongs. Mantis goes off to find herself. And
Drax adopts the children that had been the captive subjects of the High Evolutionary.
The actors who play those characters, Zoe Saldana, Pom Klementieff, and Dave Bautista,
have indicated they're unlikely to return to the MCU. But the mid-credits stinger teases
a new Guardians team moving forward, led by Rocket, and made up of Groot, Cosmo, Kraglin,
Adam Warlock, and Phyla. Whether we ever actually see this team in action is yet to be determined,
but at least in fans' imaginations, they're out there guarding the galaxy.
For his part, Peter Quill returns to Earth to reconcile with his grandfather,
Jason. Curiously, there's a tacked-on title card that reads,
"The Legendary Star-Lord will return."
That seems to indicate Chris Pratt will be reprising the role. With Gunn having
migrated to DC, the future of the "Guardians" franchise is up in the air. But Star-Lord
is a marquee MCU character and Pratt is a bankable star. Since he's back on his
home planet, it's possible we'll see him again in a standalone film or in a cameo
in another hero's film, but it's just as possible that he'll re-take to space to
play a part in the "Avengers" movies slated to premiere in 2025 and 2026.