Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be the team’s final mission together, but the movie is key to the MCU’s future thanks to two new characters.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the final adventure of the title team as it’s currently known, but even though this is the end for them, their third and final movie is vital for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thanks to two new characters. The Guardians of the Galaxy are following an old MCU tradition and their third solo adventure will be their last, but before they leave, they will introduce new characters that will set up exciting storylines and the arrival of more characters that will further expand the MCU, making Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 a key entry in the MCU’s Multiverse Saga.

Following the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, in which Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) was killed by Thanos and her 2014 version escaped after traveling to the present, the Guardians of the Galaxy are now adjusting to life on Knowhere while Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) continues to grief Gamora’s departure. When parts of Rocket Raccoon’s (voiced by Bradley Cooper) past resurface, Peter leads the team on a mission to protect Rocket, but it could also lead to the team dissolving. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will introduce two big characters that will have a big impact on the rest of the MCU: Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) and High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), and it’s thanks to them that the third Guardians movie is key for the MCU’s future even if the title team doesn’t continue after it.

Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock Can Be A Major MCU Hero

One of the characters that were heavily rumored to be introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was Adam Warlock, especially after one of the many post-credits scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. In it, Ayesha was dealing with her defeat at the hands of the Guardians but was confident in her revenge against them as she was already creating a being powerful enough to defeat them: Adam Warlock. In the comics, Adam Warlock, originally named Him, is a cosmic being artificially created on Earth and genetically engineered to be perfect and the next evolution of humanity. Him rebelled against his creators and decided to travel into space, where he came across the High Evolutionary, who gave him the name “Warlock”. High Evolutionary also gave him the Soul Gem, allowing him to capture the souls of other beings, and when he arrived at Counter-Earth, he was given the name “Adam”.

With time, Adam Warlock became a hero across the universe, protecting it from villains like Thanos and Magus, and at one point, he was a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, serving as the team’s cosmic sorcerer and occult expert. Although Adam Warlock’s role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is still unknown, his comic book history has enough material to make him a major MCU hero and even have him as the leader of a new Guardians of the Galaxy team, if Marvel wishes to carry on with it similarly to what it’s doing with the Avengers. Adam Warlock is also one of the most powerful heroes the MCU can have, so he has a promising future in this connected universe.

The High Evolutionary Could Influence Mutants In The MCU

After facing villains like Ronan the Accuser, Ego, and teaming up with the rest of the MCU’s heroes to defeat Thanos and his armies, the Guardians of the Galaxy will now face the High Evolutionary. The High Evolutionary, whose real name is Herbert Edgar Wyndham, was born in Manchester, England, and as a student at Oxford in the 1930s, he took interest in the works of Nathaniel Essex (later known as the supervillain Mister Sinister), a scientist obsessed with deterministic interpretations of natural evolution, predicting the emergence of mutants. Wyndham began experimenting with genetic manipulations and attempted to “evolve” the rats in his mother’s basement, and during a conference in Geneva, he was approached by a disguised Inhuman who gave him the secrets for unlocking genetic codes. After being expelled from Oxford University, he continued his experiments with fellow scientist Jonathan Drew, setting up a base in Transia on Wundagore Mountain.

With the help of a new assistant, Wyndham transformed a group of animals into talking, humanoid characters named “New Men”, and he started to be referred to as “Lord High Evolutionary”. Wyndham’s “citadel of science” was the birthplace of twin children whose birth coincided with the moment of the defeat of the demonic entity Chthon, and the baby girl was touched with the demon’s magic. As their mother fled, the twins were placed in stasis for decades until they were adopted by Roma Django and Marya Maximoff, and grew up to be Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Of course, the MCU makes a lot of changes to the characters from Marvel Comics to fit its narrative, and given the High Evolutionary’s obsession with genetics and more, he could be linked to the presence of mutants in the MCU, perhaps being revealed as the creator of the X-gene.

Mutants are now confirmed to exist in the MCU and its multiverse, with Kamala Khan revealed to be a mutant, which opens many doors for the MCU to further explore the presence of mutants. The High Evolutionary’s studies on the works of Essex could have led him to experiment and create mutants in the MCU, and while he can’t be tied to the origin story of the Maximoff twins anymore, he can be given a bigger role in the MCU if he’s involved in the creation of mutants, which also allows Marvel to explain why mutants are showing up until now.

GOTG3 Can Finally Set Up Marvel’s Nova

Another character constantly rumored to be coming to the MCU is Nova, and though he won’t make his debut in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (unless, of course, it’s a surprise), a project based on him is in development and planned to be released as a Special Presentation on Disney+. Richard Rider was born in New York and when he was a teenager he was chosen at random by Rhomann Dey, the last surviving Centurion of the Nova Corps, to inherit his power and take his place in the rank of Nova Prime following the destruction of his world. Rider was given the uniform and powers of a Nova Centurion and began calling himself “Nova”.

Now, as Thanos destroyed Xandar and the Nova Corps in his quest to obtain the Infinity Stones, the MCU already has the basis to introduce Nova, but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 can properly set him up, as in the comics, Nova was a member of the team at some point. If the final Guardians of the Galaxy movie is the end of the original team but the rise of a new one, it could prepare the ground for Nova’s upcoming project and his inclusion in the team in the near future.