Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 crashed into theaters with all the action and comedy fans
of the franchise have been waiting for — not to mention dozens of in-jokes and callbacks
to both the previous film and the comics.
If you didn't spot them all, don't worry!
We picked out some of the most interesting and obscure Easter eggs in Guardians of the
Galaxy 2.
Fair warning: Major spoilers coming up.
Star-Lord's shirt
Guardians is full of tiny details, which is part of what makes the films so fun to watch.
But one of the weirdest questions in Guardians Vol. 2 got answered before the movie even
came out.
Several of the trailers show Peter Quill wearing a shirt with a weird, alien-looking logo.
To most people, it was just a cool looking shirt.
But to Guardians super-fans, it was a challenge.
As one Reddit user figured out, the graphic on the front of the shirt actually says "Gears
Shift" in an alien language — the language used on a keyboard in the first film.
Exactly what that means is still a mystery, but hey, it's pretty cool regardless.
The Kronan connection
As Rocket and Yondu are portal-jumping across planets to reach Ego, we get to see a ton
of interesting visuals — like the legendary Stan Lee talking to a group of Watchers.
But one other cool glimpse we got was of a barren alien planet with two hulking aliens
beating each other up.
Those guys look a lot like Kronans, a technologically advanced, militant race of beings that look
sort of like big, humanoid rocks.
So what's the connection?
Well, we've already seen a Kronan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Thor: The Dark World.
That guy got blasted into gravel, but Thor: Ragnarok will feature another Kronan — Korg,
who in the comics becomes the Hulk's ally.
Korg's role in Ragnarok is still unknown, but now that Guardians took the time to feature
the race of rock men, we have to wonder: Was Korg one of those figures fighting in Guardians?
Or was that shot simply put in as a bonus for any fan paying close attention, with no
bearing on the rest of the MCU?
Cosmo returns
One of the weirdest characters from the comics has now made an appearance in both Guardians
films.
We're talking, of course, about Cosmo, the space-suited dog who runs up and licks the
Collector in the post credits scene from the first film.
Cosmo showed up a few times before that in the Collector's, uh, collection.
And just like Howard the Duck, this guy was back for another round in the post-credits
scenes of Guardians 2.
At first, this Easter egg seems like a simple callback to the first film.
But what you may not know is that Cosmo is actually a recurring character in the Guardians'
comics and cartoons.
And he does a lot more than lick people when they're sad.
Cosmo is a...well, he's a telepathic space dog who acts as the head of security for Knowhere.
That's where we meet the Collector in the first film, and he's incredibly powerful.
For example, in Thanos Imperative #2, Cosmos singlehandedly killed the Hulk with a mental
shockwave, and he once went toe-to-toe with Adam Warlock and came out on top.
This is one doggy you don't want to mess with.
And while we're hanging out on Knowhere...
Celestial trifecta
Ego's reveal as a Celestial was pretty big news in Guardians 2.
If you don't know, the Celestials are an extremely powerful cosmic race.
They're basically space gods, as Ego himself said in the movie.
But this isn't the first time we've seen a Celestial in the Guardians of the Galaxy films
— it's actually the third time.
The one most fans know about popped up in the first Guardians when Star-Lord and his
troupe went to Knowhere to meet with the Collector.
While explaining the Infinity Stones, Collector shows them a video of a big metal man with
the purple one, blasting people into dust.
"These carriers can use the stone to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field."
That guy was basically a photocopy of the Marvel Comics Celestials.
And the third Celestial?
Well, it's in the same scene.
They were all standing on it.
In it, to be exact.
Knowhere — the Collector's little black market mining colony — is the severed head
of a Celestial.
"It's called Knowhere, the severed head of an ancient Celestial being."
So when Ego revealed that he was a Celestial, the idea should've been pretty much old-hat
to the fans who've been keeping up with things the whole time.
Yondu's big orange fin
Michael Rooker's Yondu looks pretty close to the Yondu of the comics — he's a big
blue guy.
It's a pretty hard look to screw up.
And yet there is a big difference.
In the comics, Yondu's head-fin is a big orange mohawk, not the slim tangerine curve of the
first film.
Well, until Yondu replaces his broken fin with a prototype version in Guardians 2 — a
prototype that's a bit bigger and much...oranger.
It still doesn't come close to the glorious head-spanning monstrosity of the early comics,
but Yondu's new look takes him one step closer to his comic incarnation.
The crystal frog
Yondu's little crystal frog practically had a subplot of its own in the first Guardians,
although most people completely missed it.
"You got any other cute little buggers like this'n?
I like to stick 'em all in a row on my control console."
"I can't tell if you're joking or not."
Yeah, that thing.
Well, Yondu got his frog, and he kept it with him.
Before he goes into the climactic fight in the skies of Xandar, that little frog is sitting
right by his hand.
And when his ship crashes on the planet, the crystal frog is the only piece of wreckage
Yondu picks up out of the dirt.
Unfortunately, Yondu bit the big one.
But he still has his frog.
In Guardians 2, during the overhead shot of Yondu's funeral pyre, his body is surrounded
by ornaments of his life.
And one of those symbolic trinkets is — you guessed it — that little blue frog.
We can only assume that frog has been to hell and back again at Yondu's side, so it's only
fitting that that's where it remains when Yondu is blasted into space in a million technicolor
bits.
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