Warning: This article contains spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3Marvel has done it again: offered us a film with two credits!
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 spoilers below
Yes, yes, fine. Director James Gunn and his cast and crew also delivered the best Marvel movie in years, and bid a heartfelt farewell to the characters fans have come to know for nearly a decade.
In what appears to be their final film together, the Guardians free Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) from the clutches of The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) through the power of teamwork and family. They also manage to rescue the other creatures The High Evolutionary is experimenting on and return them to a home at their base of operations on Knowhere.
After this last big adventure together, the Guardians of the Galaxy have a heart to heart about what they want from life, from themselves, from each other. Saving the universe more than once – and seeing how close the universe came to being erased each time – puts a lot of things into perspective.
While Gamora (Zoe Saldana) no longer has any connection to the Guardians (an embarrassing consequence of time travel), she acknowledges her affection for the team before returning to the space pirates known as Pests. Drax (Dave Bautista) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) say they will stay on Knowhere and lead the fledgling colony. Mantis (Pom Klementieff) tells the group that she wants to get together and have her own adventure. And Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) hands over the captaincy to Rocket, telling his friends he wants to go see his grandfather on planet Earth.
That’s a lot of retired Guardians! But is this really the end of the road for these heroes?
Mid-Credits Scene Introduces New Guardians Of The Galaxy List
The mid-credits scene opens with Rocket and his new roster of Guardians. It’s Rocket, telekinetic canine Cosmo (voiced by Maria Bakalova), superpowered himbo Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), klutzy Kraglin (Sean Gunn), a very hulking Groot, and one of the Star Kids (platinum-haired children who can or not being superpowered) saved from prison in The High Evolutionary. They hang around just beyond the perimeter of a village, talking about their favorite songs. The new Guardians circle around, before Rocket praises Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love.”
After Rocket starts the song, a rush of alien beasts descends on the village, and the Guardians give us a group superhero pose before heading into battle – as the tune plays.
The scene works on two levels. Primarily, it sets up the new Guardians roster now that Rocket has taken over. Gone are stalwarts like Peter Quill, Gamora, and Drax. The same goes for new recruits like Nebula and Mantis. They have been replaced by heavy hitters, however, as Adam Warlock and Cosmo both have superpowers and Kraglin has mastered the hot pink whistle-controlled arrow once used by Star-Lord’s adoptive father, Yondu. Personality-wise, Warlock’s intellectual density is no different from Drax’s, and Cosmo’s cute yet powerful persona resembles that of Mantis. Kraglin is still a bit of a clown and Groot is Groot, only bigger.
This new team of Guardians could work with a similar dynamic to the original team.
The joker is the unnamed Star Kid. The child appears to have powers (they glow) but the scene cuts before we see them fighting.
During the film, we discover in passing that The High Evolutionary tinkered with the genes of these children and made them extremely intelligent. We also see The High Evolutionary studying one as she tirelessly races around in a hamster wheel. However, we don’t know exactly what powers they may have.
The High Evolutionary and one of his genetically modified Star Kids.
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According to the credits attached to the film, they are simply billed as “Star Kids”. It’s a term that doesn’t really have a direct reference in the comics – there’s a character called Star-Child, a race of characters called Zebra Kids that plot The High Evolutionary, and a few Guardians-adjacent characters that have a star symbols on their uniforms – but maybe we’ll get a full picture of the child’s powers in a future film.
Rocket’s song choice is also noteworthy. Guardians fans will notice right away. “Come and Get Your Love” was the song played in the opening scene of the 2014 original guardians of the galaxy movie.
Peter has the song queued up on his Walkman while he steals the Infinity Stone from the planet Morag. Rocket playing the song is not only a tribute to Quill but also signals, like in the first film, a new introduction for the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Peter Quill and his grandfather reunite
The final credits scene gives us a glimpse of Peter Quill’s reunion with his grandfather (Gregg Henry). They last saw each other in 1988, and after spending all those years apart, the two were finally able to be a family again. And just as we do with our own families after long periods of absence, Peter and Grandpa have lunch together and complain.
Peter talks about someone – an unnamed neighbor – who asks him to mow the lawn. He wonders why he should do it when the person asking for it is more than capable of doing it themselves or finding someone else to do it. Peter’s grandfather agrees and says, in a callback to a running gag in the film, not to start it.
The scene ends with a title card stating that the “legendary” Star-Lord will return, but he doesn’t have a specific date.
While Star-Lord will return in a future movie, it’s unclear if he’ll be joined by the rest of the Guardians. Upcoming solo movies featuring the Guardians or Peter Quill haven’t been officially announced, but if Guardians Vol. 3 is as popular as its predecessors, don’t expect Marvel to let them dance into the sunset just yet.